


Next Best Thing

by tenser



Category: Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Getting Together, Gourmet Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-10 13:51:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 23,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/786759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenser/pseuds/tenser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Toriko re-grows his arm in Life, Sunny and Teppei fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest fic I've ever written. It's also the happiest and -almost- the silliest. Yay! It's also posted on fanfiction.net, but only until about halfway, where the E-rated content begins. If you've found it here, congrats.

"Toriko?"

"Sunny!"

The absolute last person Sunny had expected to see in Life was his gluttonous, overeager fellow King.

Toriko lit up like a bonfire upon seeing Sunny, and insisted that they (Toriko's motley collection of new "friends") and Sunny all sit down somewhere and eat. The guy with green hair looked a little put-out, but agreed. As Sunny flicked the remaining moisture from his skin with his sensors, he gave the guy credit for not getting pulled into Toriko's generally infectious enthusiasm.

Once Sunny completed a much-abridged preparation routine, it was also Green Hair who led them to an outdoor restaurant.

"What were they thinking?" Sunny commented on the tent's fabric. "You'd think it was a circus with these loud red and white stripes."

"Aww, who cares?" said Toriko. "Let's eat!"

Sunny didn't bother sighing in exhasperation. "I suppose it has a lovely view."

"Yes, that's the Medical Library and the Hot Spring Shark pen," Green Hair pointed out. Quickly followed by the unrelated, "The scallops here are delicous."

"I want the most Life-like thing on the menu," Toriko grinned.

Sunny scanned the menu. He didn't have to be so careful here, nearly all the items served in Life were calculated to impart maximum health benefit. "Then it should be the Cuticle Berry appetizer."

"Sounds great! Order one for us," Toriko said.

After Sunny placed the order, the rest of Toriko's pack began chatting amongst themselves. Honestly, Sunny understood why Toriko was called the most charismatic of Gourmet Hunters. Here he was talking like he was old friends with a mafia man, a Gourmet Knight, and a Gourmet Reviver. Not Coco, not Sunny and certainly not Zebra were able to be so open and lively like that. He felt a bit out of place.

"Never knew Sunny of the Four Kings was such a priss," the heavily-scarred mafia man snarked. Sunny couldn't make up his mind whether the scars were hideous or ridiculously handsome. But the comment was not very dignified and didn't help Sunny feel less alienated.

"Watch out, or Sunny'll punch you with his hair," Toriko replied on his behalf. Sunny would have responded on his own thank you very much, if Green Hair had not settled his attention on Sunny as well.

"I've seen the look in your eyes before. You're on a hunt," said Green Hair.

Sunny's attention narrowed. He'd been foolish not to use his sensors before, because as Green Hair's identity dawned on him, Sunny realized he'd never get away with feeling the man up undetected.

Green Hair was Teppei the Reviver. Another giant of the age, maybe not on par with the Four Kings, but someone of consequence.

In a flash, his first impression of the Reviver was made: Amythest eyes. Remarkably smooth complexion marred by an unsightly scar (what was with these people and scars?!). Terrible fashion sense.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Shortly after they waved goodbye to Match, his men and Takimaru, Yosaku turned to Teppei.

"Well, Teppei? Going to stick around and help me out?"

Yosaku frequently framed his demands like questions. Teppei sighed. "If you put it like that..."

"Good! But you know, if you've got a job lined up, go on ahead. You're a professional. Toriko's not going to be doing anything interesting after the arm bud gets planted."

Which is how Teppei found himself wandering around the floor of Mother Wood on the off-chance that he'd find a job. Not to avoid further involvement in the Toriko case, but he did want to honor Yosaku's consideration. This wasn't his usual method for finding jobs; in fact, he had a list of clients of his own now, most of whom just called him up. It was enough to live pretty well on. Besides that, he had a list he always kept with him of his grandpa Jiro's known exploits. But, he reminded himself looking at some fresh-faced kids listening to an older Reviver, Mother Wood was where most of his leads had come from originally.

"Hey there, Tep," came a voice from behind him.

He turned to see Toriko's friend Sunny striding along, his hair in a high ponytail. First Zebra, then Toriko, now Sunny. If he hadn't met Coco by the end of the year, he'd be surprised.

To his recollection, Sunny had wanted to talk to Yosaku and that should have been over already, so Teppei was at a loss as to why he was being sought.

Sunny stopped gracefully in a beam of light. "Your crusty old bastard of a master sent me on an errand. An errand! Apparently, he wants some food. You'll help me, won't you? I have no idea where he expects me to shop."

"Did he tell you what he needs?" Teppei asked, entranced by the strangely angelic image.

"Not at all. I haven't the slightest idea what he wants."

"He probably doesn't care," Teppei chuckled.

Sunny scoffed. "I suppose a hairy, smelly lout like him wouldn't."

"C'mon," said Teppei, headed for the exit. "I'll take you to a market he likes, if you still want to."

Sunny shifted, pouting. Teppei wasn't sure who the petulant gesture was supposed to affect.

"Well, I could use some fresh air after being in that cramped lab," Sunny huffed.

The two headed out the door and down the long staircase.

Teppei had made the trip from Mother Wood to Life's markets daily for years. As Yosaku said, even Revivers couldn't materialize food out of thin air.

"Gawd, these stairs go forever," Sunny complained.

"Ha ha," Teppei agreed. "It's a pretty tall tree. When I was a kid I used to practice Reviving Forms going up and down while going grocery shopping."

"Reviving Forms?" Sunny asked. "What're those?"

Right, Sunny hadn't been in Ice Hell. Although he did wonder how one of the Four Kings could be isolated enough by the IGO to have never seen a Reviver in action.

"They're martial arts moves that enhance Knocking. Some people think Knocking can only be achieved with a tool, but that's not true. You can use punches and pokes and all sorts of stuff. Oh, it's like Toriko with his Fork and Knife. He uses the 'knife' and 'fork' to direct energy from his body. It's like that with Knocking, it's not just force, it's precision. Or an application of precise force-"

Teppei cut himself short. Sunny was giving him that peculiar look which usually meant he was rambling.

"You're interesting," Sunny said.

"Ha ha..." Teppei blushed. "Uh, most people tell me that I talk too much."

"Oh, you do." Sunny said. "But if Toriko's seen a Reviver in action, then I want to too." Teppei cringed. First he was "interesting," now he was just a tool of one-ups-manship?

Still. Ankles flexed, toes snapped into action and he leapt into the air. He twisted, shot towards the sky, spinning and plummeted to the ground below. Drawing up from landing, his palm jerked into position, energy tingling through it.

He dispelled the energy with a relaxed grin. "I used to do cartwheels all the way down. Want to see?"

"No. That would be unsightly," Sunny caught up to Teppei. Despite his words, his brow was raised with interest.

"Probably better not," Teppei admitted. "It's really tiring, especially on the way up."


	2. Gourmet Shopping

Sunny really couldn't think of the last time he'd been shopping for food. It seemed so quaint, which made it lovely in a certain way. But that warm, fuzzy feeling did not extend to shlepping the haul home.

"Couldn't they have used cloth bags?" Sunny lamented as he floated up the staircase. It wasn't to show off, it was just the easiest method for him.

Teppei grinned, a habit that he seemed to lean on heavily. "We could have brought our own, but these are biodegradable, don't worry."

"That's lovely, but it's not the environment I'm worried about," Sunny sighed. Gesturing with his hand, he drew Teppei's attention to the fact that his hair was festooned with grocery bags like a Christmas tree with particularly lumpy, plastic ornaments.

Teppei glanced, and then held out a black-gloved hand. "I can get those if it's too much for your hair."

"How dare you suggest my hair's weak!"

"Oops. Silence is golden."

Silence was fine with Sunny in dealing with this strange man, so he floated in peace while Teppei took the stairs with surprising grace.

"How far do those feelers go?" Teppei asked.

"Far enough," Sunny prickled. "I'm not giving information like that to someone who can put me behind bars." Let it not be said that Sunny had forgotten who put Zebra in a jail cell.

"Were you guys close? You and Zebra."

Now wasn't that an interesting question. Teppei's thick eyebrows didn't betray any particular emotion other than curiosity. Still, how probing.

"I'll tell you that but you could be kind enough to exchange information about Yosaku in turn," Sunny said.

Teppei shook his head. "No need. Look, I'll tell you anything you want. That I know. My master doesn't share a lot of stuff with me, you see."

"Well, I look forward to hearing all you don't know in lunch in a few minutes."

"Okay." Teppei grinned again.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teppei knew something was wrong the minute he entered the lab. Call it a hunch, call it a smell, call it whatever. Maybe he could just read the tension in Yosaku's burly body all too well to know his master was in the zone. Teppei wanted to head out as soon as possible – to be honest, Yosaku's work awed him a bit too much and he would rather do something new and talk to Sunny for a while.

Sunny didn't notice, he was too busy laughing at Toriko's haircut.

Then the regeneration started, and even Sunny paid attention.

Toriko's cheeks caved, his muscles shriveled and seconds later he tottered like a skeleton towards the table of food. Teppei didn't have to see Yosaku to know his eyes were bugged out in amazement.

Teppei stumbled backward, making way for the emaciated man to reach the table of sustenance. Sunny dumped what was left in the bags onto the table with a swing of his hair, but his mouth dropped too.

During no portion of their trip to Ice Hell had Teppei truly understood how much Toriko could eat. Some living creatures had strong life forces but didn't consume much, or vice versa. Sunny knew. So Teppei assumed Sunny's slack-jawed expression wasn't in awe of the speed a steak slid down Toriko's throat, but horror at the lack of consumables.

"Tep!" he shouted.

With a nod, they bolted for the door.

Their descent down the stairs was nothing like the first time. Sunny flew and Teppei ran at full pace. Minutes later, Sunny skidded into the market, unleashing his hair.

"HAIR SHOPPING!" Tendrils shot out, grabbing apples and fish and grains indiscriminately.

Or not, so randomly, Teppei realized as he dashed for some Only Nuts to find Sunny's hair wrapped protectively around a bag.

"Do you have a good memory, Tep?" Sunny said, his arched eyebrows concentrated.

"Pretty good," he answered. Sunny's eyes darted around, like he was counting-

"That will have to do," he said, suddenly yanking several feasts worth of food from their stalls, and then some. The shopkeepers voices rose in protest.

"Hey!"

"Thief!"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"Put it on the tab of Sunny of the Four Kings!" Sunny snarled, his food-festooned hair curling into a package above his head. "Tep, you figure out how much I owe!"

"Whaaaat?!"

Before his shout had finished echoing, Sunny was out of sight.

Teppei looked around, and sighed heavily. Sure, he knew the market pretty well, but he didn't have a photographic memory or anything. Grumbling shopkeepers looked to his familiar face.

"The nerve of that guy! Is he really one of the Four Kings?"

"Yeah," Teppei said. "Tell you what, just bill Yosaku. Sunny's trying to take care of his friend who's sick. It's another one of the Four Kings."

"We get celebrities here all the time," grumbled a woman as she picked up fallen grapefruits. "And everyone here knows somebody sick."

Teppei bent to help the woman, and then help an older man pour some water back into his tray of Spiny Eels.

"I don't think the Four Kings are very used to people," he explained. " Well, at least Sunny doesn't seem that way. He was so nervous when he met Match and Takimaru. Plus I don't know why he was dillydallying around here without talking to Yosaku for so long. He must have been afraid—"

"You tell Yosaku he owes me 12,000 yen."

"400,000."

"1,200."

"Wowee, that's a lot of money," Teppei said. "Ha ha. Sure hope I don't end up footing the bill. I think all of them have more money than me."

"Teppei!" Sunny shouted.

Like an angel visiting earth, the Gourmet Hunter floated mid-air, arms crossed. Red-faced and sweaty too. "What are you doing? We've got to get more food!"

"But—"

"No excuses!" Teppei felt the silken shimmer of Sunny's hairs brushing against him as they slid towards the market again.

"No, stop!" Teppei was suddenly urgent. "You're a Gourmet Hunter, right? Let's hunt."

Sunny raised a finely manicured eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you're going to break the bank here. Well, Toriko's bank or Yosaku's bank. I hope it isn't going to be my bank, but you never can tell—"

"Stop rambling and get to the point, Reviver!" Sunny demanded.

Sometimes he really did talk too much. He opted for silence.

"Say something!" Sunny was becoming livid.

"The mouth is the root of evil."

Suddenly Sunny was in his face, hair gripping Teppei's cheeks. "Something. Useful."

Teppei flinched at the King's hot breath on his face. The tension in Sunny's ample muscles was palpable.

"Right. Back up the stairs and into the field."

"Ugh!" Sunny's feelers sliced past him less than gently as he turned to float back up the stairs.

Tight bonds cinched around Teppei's waist and arms. Seconds later, the ground sped beneath him. Sunny was carrying him.

"How can you be so heavy?!" Sunny growled.

"Ha ha, dunno," Teppei said. It was kind of insulting that Sunny didn't think he could keep up. He most definitely could. In a remarkable display of self control, Teppei let himself be carried and didn't remark how Sunny really lost his head when it came to Toriko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Age of Gourmet #1 rule: All proper nouns start with "Gourmet".


	3. Feeding the Beast

"Ugh," Sunny twitched."That is enough!"

On the table in the middle of Yosaku's lab, Sunny and Teppei had amassed a toppling pyramid of fresh animals and vegetables from the fields, grocery items from Sunny's Hair Shopping, plus a few processed foods from Yosaku's collection.

"Mm, thanks Sunny," Toriko said between mouthfuls. "Did you find these Log Mushrooms?"

"Yes, I did," Sunny removed his palm from his face enough to preen. "They have strong anti-bacterial properties and will keep away some of the more deletrious bacteria in the other items."

"Yum, delicious," Toriko said, not breaking eye contact from his mound of food.

For his part, Teppei hadn't felt so exhausted in a while. Even the extreme cold of Ice Hell hadn't been as exhausting as all the twists and turns in this day. His body slumped heavily in a chair. The room quieted except for Toriko's chewing.

"Hrmm," Toriko's lethargic grunt broke the haze sometime later. "So sleepy." Seconds later, his face fell into a Pudding Mushroom.

"Right," Yosaku declared. "He'll be asleep digesting for about eight hours. Teppei, Sunny, help me lift him."

Teppei rose to obey, and even though Sunny sauntered over oh-so-casually, it was clear he was obeying too. Yosaku and Sunny hefted the massive man's shoulders, and Teppei hoisted his legs. In an awkward hobble, they lifted Toriko to the Healing Jelly bed, and dropped him in.

Sunny hesitated over his sleeping companion for a second. A whisp of colored hair flicked over Toriko's face, wiping off the pudding.

"Nn, Sunny stop licking me," Toriko mumbled.

"Shut up," Sunny blushed and swiveled away.

"Heheh. Zzz."

"Not an ounce of dignity," Sunny said, mostly to himself. Although Teppei was listening, so maybe it was something he was supposed to hear too. Definitely not something to give a reaction to.

He didn't manage more than a smile and a wave when Sunny headed for the door, saying, "I'm going back to my hotel. Good luck to you two, I need beauty sleep."

The room was once again silent after the door slammed. Teppei observed Yosaku taking measurements of the sleeping Toriko. Not with any tools, of course. Yosaku wasn't big on putting anything metal between himself and his patients. His big brown hands roved over Toriko's body with a delicate precision, stopping every so often to take a pulse or measure muscle tone or one of the other many things that Yosaku was so good at on people and Teppei was mostly fluent in on creatures and plants.

"He's quite the princess," Yosaku said, attention focused on the small bud wriggling on Toriko's stump.

"Wuh, Sunny?" Teppei startled. "He's fine. He's basically a good guy."

"Still a prissy one," Yosaku said.

"Sure," Teppei smiled.

"Go to bed," Yosaku replied. Then, finally fixing his deep stare on Teppei. "Did you find a job today?"

"Nah," Teppei said.

"Then humor me and wake up at sunrise tomorrow. Oh, and cover that food."

"Yes, sir." Teppei was halfway through wrapping the whole table in clear Saran Leaves when he realized that he and Yosaku were no longer stricly Master/Apprentice and he didn't have to take any commands.

That didn't make it easier to ignore them.

Yosaku always knew best, and besides, with all the hullabaoo he'd still never had that talk with Sunny.

Nope, he wasn't headed back to the field anytime soon.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Teppei shuffled into the kitchen softly-lit kitchen, half-awake and dressed in threadbare green pajamas that were older than some of the stains on Yosaku's wall.

Yosaku sat at the breakfast table, shoveling down oatmeal with large flowers in it. Teppei slumped into the next chair and grabbed a Milk Orange from the bowl. Through the mess of his undone hair, he could barely see Yosaku's oatmeal but knew it was stuffed with medicinal herbs and energy boosters. Always had been. Teppei preferred fruits and eggs, if they had any. Eggs, that would be good...

"Eat a burrito from the fridge," Yosaku said. "Toriko's asleep. Once he wakes up, he's going to be starving, so I don't want you banging the pots around like you always do."

"Master!"

"I don't suppose you have any Beautiful Beef?" called a voice.

Sunny cut a figure in the entry, looking impecibly dressed in his usual pink and blue garb. A large pink bag was thrown over his shoulder.

Yosaku choked into his oatmeal.

"What? You said Toriko would be awake in eight hours," Sunny glanced haughtily down at the Reviver rounding up bits of sprayed oatmeal.

"There's still a lot of food left over from yesterday," Teppei pointed out. "I wrapped it. It should be good until lunch."

"Then we've got extra time to get done early so I can get real beauty sleep tonight."

"No one's going to get much beauty sleep until Toriko's cells start to stabilize," Yosaku interjected.

"And when is that?"

"How should I know? He keeps breaking all the rules!"

"What's the bag for?" Teppei asked Sunny.

"It's an overnight bag. I checked out of the hotel. I'll be staying here."

Yosaku's eyes bugged out.

"Tep, show me to my room."

"Uh, this isn't a hotel," Teppei said, getting up to show him a room anyway.

"I am quite aware of that," Sunny said. He looked at the walls with unfettered disgust. And when they were out of Yosaku's range, "You probably couldn't charge a rat to stay here."

"If you feel that way, why are you staying here?" Teppei asked, more out of curiosity than defensiveness.

"I can't very well feed Toriko if I have to keep commuting," Sunny explained.

"Yeah, guess that's silly," Teppei said absently. He led them to one of the bedrooms down a wood-panel hall. Despite, or because it was an infirmary, the Revival Lab had a number of smaller bedrooms and did in some ways actually resembe an inn.

None of the bedrooms were actually bloodstained.

Sunny stopped in front of one, nodded, and set his bag inside. Apparently, it had met his standards.

"Now then, finish that oatmeal or whatever and I'll watch Toriko. After I see that lazy jerk wake up rested and ravenous, then we'll go out to get more food."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'd like to see the Toriko crew spend more time capturing breakfast foods. Granola-saurus, man. With armor as pebbly and impenetrable as Grape Nuts.


	4. Slimy Shake-up

In the wide field outside of the city of Life, Sunny deduced the most promising creatures to catch were small mammals. But he'd need to catch a lot. Toriko could easily eat twelve shisha-ka-bobs of rabbit, and... ew, that was a disgusting image.

Although Toriko would eat anything, Sunny was going to make sure it was worth eating. A body needed proper nutrition if it was going to heal and that meant only the finest foods.

Teppei wasn't doing too bad on that account, although he seemed pathologically focused on vegetables. With his strange green bouffant bobbing in the grass, and that ridiculous green track suit, he looked like some sort of vegetable himself.

That image was more amusing than the rabbit-ka-bob, and Sunny relaxed into the strangely peaceful and refreshing mood.

"You promised to tell me about Yosaku," Sunny said.

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, for one, is he really as talented as they say?"

"I think the only 'they' is me. And you trusted me pretty easily," Teppei said, giving him an odd look. Those eyes, those amythst eyes tugged at him. If only those eyebrows weren't so thick, he'd be a beauty. He had an air of refinement to him that was so rare. At least, rare if your normal companions were Rin, Toriko or, gag, Zebra.

"You're snapping their necks," Teppei pointed.

"It... It's the most beautiful way to give the rabbits a quick death," Sunny commented, flustered. He changed the subject. "Anyway, isn't there anything larger?"

"Well," Teppei halted and placed a black-gloved finger next to his lip. "No. We'd have to go farther inland."

"Show me," Sunny said.

Teppei hesitated, then shot off towards a hillside. Sunny followed him over the treetops to a cave entrance.

"Have you ever killed a Slug Dragon before?" Teppei asked.

"A WHAT?!" Sunny exploded. "That sounds positively disgusting!"

"Have you?"

"NO!"

"Okay, I'll Knock it, then." Teppei rapped sharply at the stone wall, the tones echoing down a large chamber.

When a giant yellow slug-like mass started oozing out the hole, Sunny almost vomited. "Damn right I'm not touching that!"

Two tentacled eyes unwrapped themselves from the sticky body and woozed into place. Next, a pair of slimy wings started to unfold. Before they could shake the goo off, Teppei flashed into action.

"Impact Knocking. Medium!"

With a flip, Teppei landed on the large creature's head. Then, with artistic precision, he splayed his legs between the two eyestalks and slapped his palm against the Slug Dragon's soft skull.

The effect was immediate; the yellow creature stopped advancing. Teppei visibly relaxed, turning back to Sunny with a smile. "Help me carry it?"

Sunny really didn't think he loved Toriko enough to touch it, let alone haul it back.

"Please?" Teppei asked. The bald pleading in Teppei's eyes almost made him want to concede.

"No way. Isn't there anything at all of a decent size other than this? If I'd know you were going to capture a Slug Dragon, I wouldn't have agreed at all!"

"Oh," Teppei said. "They're the largest animal around that's approved for Capture. They've actually become a nuisance recently because they've been burrowing under the hills and displacing some of the Ruby Crabs, not to mention they leave slime stains that change the PH and keep Log Mushrooms from growing-"

"NO. It's final. No."

"Oh." With a shrug, Teppei slanted his hand and rammed it back into the Slug's head. The creature squirmed to life, making a rapid retreat back down its hole as Teppei leaped off.

Sunny released a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding.

"Ugh, that slime gets everywhere," Teppei said, shaking his hand. Bits of goo sprayed.

"We're going back to get more rabbits," Sunny gritted his teeth.

Teppei grinned sheeplishly. "I guess so."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once everyone was back in the same room, whatever tension Sunny carried in from the hunt evaporated. Toriko wasn't smiling, but he was intensely focused on eating and that was a return to normalcy.

Yosaku immedately excused himself to go pass out, and Teppei went off somewhere as well, which left Sunny and Toriko at the food table. Stomach grumbling, Sunny lifted a leg of rabbit.

"Hey! That's mine!" Toriko yelled.

"It's mine! I caught it!" Sunny shouted back.

"But it's my medicine!"

"Too bad!" Sunny licked the meat off the leg in one go.

"Aw, fine. I guess this isn't Jewel Meat or anything so it doesn't matter."

"Don't insult the food you're eating. This is all selected for max nutritional value."

"Really?" Toriko gave him some goofy smile. "Just what I'd expect from you."

"Losing an arm, that's what I'd expect from you." The sheer atrocity of a lost limb was something Sunny could barely comprehend.

"Yep, but it's going to regrow, so it's all okay."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"Well...no. Stuff like this happens. Scars, sickness, injuries. "

"But it's your whole arm! Whole! Arm!"

"Yep."

"Wha... You know, it's poetic justice that you got in over your head and lost the means to perpetuate getting in over his head," Sunny scoffed.

"You lose your hairs all the time," Toriko retorted.

"Yeah," Sunny said, a bit taken aback that Toriko had noticed. "They shed, they get pulled out all the time. But I have 200,000 of them. You've only got 2 arms."

"Right now I'd say it's about 1.1 arms."

"As if! that's a .01 if I ever saw it!"

"Don't be mean, it's growing back."

Toriko seemed dejected for the first time, so Sunny ate a bit more, then decided it was time to go enjoy a spa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slug Dragon - a banana slug that's 20 feet tall and 50 feet long. They live in caves where they follow slime trails to find fungus and other cave offerings. They have tiny vestigial wings. They're called "dragons" just because of their size, not because they are particularly ferocious or breathe fire.


	5. The Spa Before the Storm

Not everyone marked their passage into adulthood with a spa binge, but not everyone was the beauty of the Four Kings.

Right after his first major check from a non-IGO client, Sunny booked passage alone to Life and blew every cent that he could on spa treatments, luscious meals and grooming. When the month was over, Sunny was squeaky clean, radiantly healthy and nearly broke.

The luster receeded from vacationing in Life: both the benefits from his visit and from Life's wonder. Today was much like the new "normal" in Life. Delicious but not sublime. One's first time was always a landmark experience.

Sunny exhaled as he delicately gathered his freshly-laundered hair into a ponytail. The little dressing room was exquisitely charming, with a huge mirror and matching pink brushes and combs. The spa catered to wealthy women, but Sunny went there from time to time for the exceptional hot springs.

On the staircase up to the Revival Lab, the breeze was mild and warm. Sunny was feeling marvelous until he heard peals of Yosaku's laughter rising from the lab. For some reason that made him tense.

"Hey, Sunny," Toriko said between mouthfuls. Not glancing up at him, of course, why would a person command more attention than whatever slop Toriko was eating? And it did look like grey slop, being that the table was nearly empty except for the compressed remains of whatever had been on the bottom of the pile.

"Gross!" Sunny said.

"I'm slowing down," Toriko managed. "It's stabilizing!"

It was a relief, Sunny realized. Maybe now was a good time to get to his true aim...

"So Reviver Man," Sunny said. "I have a few questions to ask you."

"You're looking for Earth," Yosaku grinned through a puff of smoke.

"Yes... What can you tell me about it?"

"What do you want to know?"

"I wanna know what it tastes like," Toriko interrupted. "It's supposed to be a dessert, right?"

"I wasn't talking to you!" Sunny shouted.

"So, what do you want to know?" Yosaku repeated.

"I'm not asking you anything here, where the glutton can hear. Besides, you've already got a dessert in your Full-Course Meal, Toriko! Don't go stealing mine!"

"I don't want to steal- AGH! So hungry!"

In the blink of an eye, Toriko started shriveling, the hard-earned muscle withering into sinew.

"Toriko! What happened?!" Sunny gasped.

Yosaku was suddenly on his feet. "It was Earth! Just imagining something delicious caused his Gourmet Cells to go into hyperdrive!"

"What...?!" Sunny shouted.

"Sunny, get more food, now!" Yosaku commanded.

"Why me? Why not Teppei!"

"Teppei's already getting food! But he's going to need a lot more!"

"Dammit!" Sunny cursed, but made a beeline for the woods.

The path to the Slug Dragon was easy enough to retrace, a broken twig here, and padded piece of grass there. He was going to have to touch the thing, but at least he had a plan not to butcher it.

He rapped on the cave, and the monsterous thing schlorped out. Ugh, vomit! Despite its immense grossness, he grabbed the Slug Dragon with his sensors and raised it high up into the air.

Right on cue, a giant Beef Falcon dove for it. Nabbing the beautiful brown-and-red feathered bird with his Hair Net was a cinch. He plopped the Slug Dragon next to its cave, into which it quickly slunk.

Sunny sliced the bird's throat. A Beef Falcon was a real delight, with each feather tasting like a different well-doness of steak. The long brown feathers tasted like a well-done steak, and the red underfeathers were juicy rare steak.

"How did you catch a Beef Falcon?"

Sunny whirled around to find Teppei with a large sack flung over his shoulder. He looked uncharacteristically serious, his tone dangerously flat. "Those are endangered."

"Look the other way this once, Tep. Toriko's gotten worse, and you can't expect me to cut up an icky Slug Dragon."

Teppei set down the sack and walked over to the bird. He bent down, surveying the damage of Sunny's slice. "But you used one as bait."

"Yeah. I saw Beef Falcons in the air the last time, and realized they must be attracted to the high salt content of the Slug Dragons."

Teppei bit his lip. "I could arrest you."

Sunny felt betrayed in a way he couldn't express.

"But this bird," Teppei said, planting a seed from his pocket, "can still be revived."

Logically, Sunny knew that Teppei was the one who healed all of Toriko's friends' wounds in Ice Hell, but he hadn't seen those skills in action. As he watched now, it seemed to involved planting and harvesting fast-growing plants that twined around the bird, and some concoctions from Teppei's earrings.

Sunny jumped as the bird weakly cawed.

"You...brought it back to life?"

"It's not something we Revivers can often do. Not unless we catch a poacher in the act." Teppei's look was crystal clear.

"All right, all right, I'll go catch a damn slug."

"Fine." And with that, the two men dashed in separate directions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also wrote a rambling fic about Sunny and Teppei getting together at the spa. It ended up being too close in content to this fic, but also off at the same time.


	6. Trust and All That

Trust was a strange thing. Until he'd seen the falcon laying at Sunny's feet, Teppei hadn't known that he'd trusted Sunny.

Teppei excused himself to the back rooms after unloading his sack at the lab, but felt unable to rest. So now here he was, wandering around town with an unexpected heartache.

Had he really trusted Sunny in the first place? He'd explicitly shown Sunny only the Slug Dragons, glazing over the topic of "larger prey." He'd forced Sunny to catch rabbits and things the man considered untouchable. He could have mentioned not to kill the endangered birds, but he didn't.

Maybe, sometimes he didn't talk enough.

But Sunny was one of the Four Kings, shouldn't he have known about the endangered status? Although Zebra hadn't seemed to care...

Teppei sighed.

They weren't in Ice Hell anymore. Maybe it was time to remember that Gourmet Hunters and Revivers were on different sides.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time Teppei wandered back, it was nightfall. Yosaku was puttering around a few of his other projects. Toriko was still eating at a rabid pace, but the table was relatively full of the food Teppei had gathered, and the pungent odor of Slug Dragon wafted in from the storage area.

"Master," Teppei said, squatting down near Yosaku's work area. "You're friends with the president of the IGO, right?"

As usual, Yosaku intuited the problem. "Did that Gourmet Princess do something to get you down?"

"Yeah," Teppei sighed. "How do you be friends with someone who undoes the work you do?"

Yosaku turned to his former apprentice. "You love your grandpa Jiro, don't you? Does it upset you that he goes around killing things?"

"Hrmmm," Teppei rubbed the side of his nose.

"You love him not because of what he does, but because of who he is to you," Yosaku asserted.

"Is that different?"

"Not always" Yosaku grinned. "But admiring a trait, or even a living thing isn't the same as one person's relationship with another."

"That isn't helping at all, Master."

"Sure it is! I've got a hunch everything's going to work out just fine."

"Your hunches are always right, but I sure don't get it this time."

That night, Sunny suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"I'm going to sleep," Sunny announced.

"Right!" said Yosaku. "Teppei, make sure he's got stuff for the bed."

it took a second to respond. "I think he can figure it out..."

"No whining! Just do it!"

Teppei scooted off in the direction of the living quarters. Sunny followed behind, an akward tension smothering their words. The linen cabinet had an assortment of odd blankets. Teppei chose the pinkest one and the warmest one and some sheets that still looked half decent. Ones that probably hadn't been used as bandages, at least.

"You do have a sense of style after all," Sunny commented.

"Huh?" Teppei looked down at the pile of fabric in his hand.

"They coordinate... Don't tell me, you didn't do that on purpose?"

"I don't think so," Teppei laughed nervously.

Sunny smiled. It looked a bit pinched, but then with his sharp features everything looked a bit hawkish. "I'm sorry about this afternoon, Tep. It wouldn't be very beautiful of me to hunt endangered species in a country like Life."

The apology felt warm and real. Teppei hadn't realized it, but honesty was also so Sunny. 

"I wouldn't have really arrested you," Teppei replied.

"And we're forgiven," Sunny said, winking.

Teppei hesitated.

"Or not. Well, anyway, I know you can arrest people like me. You arrested Zebra." Sunny got a little grin on his face again. "What was he like?"

"Uh, big."

"Ha ha! Yes! That hulking oaf doesn't deserve any sort of eloquent description!"

"He looked kind of...accepting."

"Accepting?!"

"Yeah. Like he wanted to be arrested. Or didn't mind it. I've arrested a lot of poachers and criminals in my life and this was one of the few times that the criminal accepted what was happening. Like he was owning up to all the charges instead of trying to run from them."

"Oh, well that hubris does sound like Zebra."

Teppei thought Sunny was being a bit gossipy about the whole thing. Yet from what he understood, the Four Kings were kind of like brothers. If he'd spent less time growing up around old men, maybe he'd understand.

"Well, thanks for the sheets," Sunny slid them from Teppei's hands. "I'll set them up myself. See you in the moring, Tep."

"Night," he said belatedly. The hall felt strangely empty and himself rather buzzy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is about when I started figuring out what sort of relationship would develop between Sunny and Teppei :D Sunny isn't really that flirty even though he's so fabulous (which is one of the great things about him). And Teppei is a ditz. But they start to feel things. About stuff. And Yosaku is there to "help."


	7. Questionable Reasoning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first unedited chapter that diverges from the content up on fanfiction.net. Should be fairly obvious which part :D

Teppei nuzzled into his blankets, but was still too buzzy to sleep. It had been a long day, and he'd had to Revive something that was dead, but he knew that thoughts of Sunny were keeping him up.

He'd been...flirty with the blankets. An outsider would expect that from Sunny. Someone that flamboyant had to be flirty, and interested in boys, right?

Did it make Teppei an insider to know Sunny to be much more serious?

More importantly, was Sunny interested in boys?

Teppei tossed over again, and slowed his breathing. Images of Sunny winking at him wouldn't leave him alone. Winking and then dragging one of those long fingers down his bare chest, circling around a pink nipple... 

“Argh!” It wasn't right of him to think about Sunny like that. Or maybe it was, not because Sunny had been encouraging it, but because Teppei could damn well imagine whatever he wanted when he was alone in bed.

“Nnh...” Teppei sat up, dispelling the vision. But of its own accord, his hand fell onto his crotch. The worn-out sweatpants did nothing to mask the warmth down there. He gave in a little, drinking in the shots of pleasure as he gave his clothed dick a few tugs. 

Sighing, he lay back, and pressed his hand under his waistband. With practiced motions, he stroked himself leisurely, allowing blood to congregate and pleasure to build. 

He knew he couldn't stop. It'd been a couple days since he'd touched himself, and Teppei was never good at forgoing these sorts of things. 

Real flirting or not, Sunny would look good flexing his copious muscles as he spread Teppei's legs and licked the head of his cock. All that hair tied up in a ponytail so he could suck uninterrupted, fucking his throat deeper on Teppei's shaft. 

Sunny's mouth would be so soft, perfectly plush and tight when he sucked. A mouth used to delicacies might be put off by something base as a man's sex organ, but Teppei's cock would be a treat so delicious that Sunny would moan and hum and dribble saliva all over trying to get more and more of it. 

Teppei tensed, so close as he imagined the little moans and sighs that would accompany Sunny's efforts. 

Teppei stifled a gasp as his body tensed and seed spilled out over his hand. His mind clung to the beautiful image through thundering shudders, only losing it as he came slowly back to his senses. 

He licked his fingers clean enough that he could go to the bathroom without dripping semen down the corridor. He didn't think much of the light being on in the bathroom until he entered to find Yosaku at the sink. 

Yosaku stepped aside, chuckling. “You need it more than me.”

“Masterrrr!” Teppei groaned, and placed his hand under the warm flow as quickly as possible. 

Yosaku took off his headwrap to reveal scruffy unwashed hair. His black shirt came off next, revealing a wide brown hairy chest. And then pants—

"Hey, Master! Wait until I'm done to take your shower!"

"What's wrong? We're both men, aren't we?

"You know that doesn't really help anything for me!"

"You're not tired of looking at this already?" Teppei didn't have to look to see Yosaku would be standing naked proudly, hands on his hips as if daring Teppei to look anywhere but his crotch. He covered his eyes with both hands. "Put a towel on, Master."

"It's only a rule to have one on after showering," Yosaku declared. A smell of smoke suddenly filled the air. Thankfully followed by the squeak of the ancient shower door and a rush of water.

Embarrassment over, Teppei turned to leave, thought better of it, and plopped down on a wooden bench.

"What's eatin' ya, Teppei?" Yosaku called.

"Master, were you and Ichiryu ever...involved?"

"Nope!" came the confident reply. "The boy's too hung up on the past to have much more than a one-night stand."

"Does that mean you slept with him, Master?" Teppei asked hopefully.

"Nope again. Never did."

"But you wanted to?" Still hopeful.

"Nah."

Teppei sighed. He leaned back and drank in the steamed air, finally starting to feel relaxed enough to sleep. The rush of water and scrub of Yosaku's loofah lulled him. He dozed—

"There are no rules when it comes to attraction."

Teppei looked up. Yosaku turned the squeaky wheel of the shower to off and continued.

"I told you already. You like someone because you like them. There doesn't need to be any reason. If you follow some stupid rule you think is in place, then you'll never know—"

—The shower door sprang open, revealing Yosaku in his full glory—

"—What you're missing! Ha ha ha!"

"Master!" Teppei fled the bathroom, eyes still covered, until he made it to the safety of his bedroom. Yosaku's chuckles thankfully died out before he got back to bed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny prayed that the day his schedule wasn't defined by a giant pile of food would come quickly. But today, there it was, as filthy and massive as ever, on a table that Sunny was going to insist Yosaku throw out.

The Red Reviver and his pupil were nowhere to be seen. Sunny wandered over to Toriko, who was asleep in his jelly. He looked pretty with the morning light glittering off the jelly. Toriko always had an effortless beauty that came from being well-formed and well fed. Sunny was jealous of it in moments like these.

After a morning run to get some treats like bread and prepared foods, Sunny was surprised to find the Revivers still asleep, and Toriko just stirring.

"Hey Sunny," Toriko said blearily. "Can I have some of those rolls?"

"It's 'good morning,' you caveman," Sunny retorted as he sauntered over.

Toriko sat up, his frown at odds with the exquisite glimmer of light playing over his abdomen. Sunny took the stool next to the bed.

"Here. Don't eat them all. Leave some for me and Teppei."

"Okay!"

Sunny set on his jelly biscuit with more restraint than Toriko's munching fervor. Still, he had no trouble admitting people in Life knew what they were doing when it came to filling things with jam.

"Hey Sunny, how much longer are you going to be here?" Toriko sounded genuinely curious.

"Dunno. As long as it takes to talk to Yosaku about...stuff."

"You could ask him today and then you could leave."

Sunny was steamed. "You ungrateful jerk! I'm here for you, too!"

"Huh? You are? But you said-"

"I can't believe you're making me explain this! You think I'm just going to leave you here with these strangers?"

"Sunny!" Toriko glomped his fellow King with a bear hug. Sunny shook off the crumbs that fell in his hair.

"Ew! Get off, you disgusting pig!"

"You're so nice, Sunny!"

"Enough!" Sunny shoved Toriko back into the gel.

Toriko grumbled for a moment, but seemed to remain in good spirits. "I'm surprised you called those Revivers strangers. You've been spending so much time with Teppei that you guys must be good friends now."

"A Reviver and a Gourmet Hunter friends? Did you forget he arrested Zebra? And he almost arrested me the other day!"

"Wow, what'd you do?!"

"I killed a Beef Falcon."

"Those are endangered!"

"I know."

"But he didn't arrest you. Sunny, I know you don't play well with others, but I think that means he likes you."

"Well, I certainly like him!"

"Uh..."

"Oh..."

"..."

"..."

"That's great! I didn't know you were into men, Sunny, but it makes so much sense!"

Sunny blushed furiously. "Don't just make that up on your own! I'm into beautiful things and my standards are high. Too high for you to understand!"

Toriko shrugged. "Well, fine. But you could do a lot worse than him. He's as strong as we are." Toriko tended to think too highly of his friends in Sunny's estimation. "It's not like with me and Komatsu; you could take him anywhere. Plus he's smart and kind too."

For Toriko to compare him to Komatsu was a little much. Everyone knew about the mutual admiration society between that hunter and chef. Sunny didn't feel that way about Teppei.

"And he's related to Knocking Master Jiro! Pretty awesome, huh?"

"He is?"

"You couldn't tell?"

"By what? The bouffant? Last I checked, hairstyles weren't genetically inheritable."

"No, it's the eyebrows."

"That's still hair!"

"Are you guys talking about Grandpa Jiro?" Teppei's voice floated in from the kitchen.

Sunny glared at Toriko and then strode off to the kitchen.


	8. Routine & Prelude

The days passed quickly, and started to fall into routine. Teppei and Sunny hunted or went to the store in the morning, then ate lunch together. In the afternoon, Sunny went to a spa and Teppei would assist Yosaku or go troll the Food Lodge for odd jobs and to meet with old acquaintances.

It gave them both enough time to get to know each other better. It also gave Sunny time to realize that Yosaku was avoiding him.

Any time he'd try to corner the Reviver out of earshot of Toriko, Yosaku would make some excuse to go back over, or grin and tell Sunny they'd talk later.

Finally, one day Sunny cornered him smoking out on the stairs.

"Yosaku, tell me about Earth," Sunny said bluntly.

"I'll tell you everything I know after Toriko's better," he replied.

"So helping you out is my payment," Sunny guessed.

"Nope."

"Then why?! Just tell me now, and I'll still help out. Even I can tell his recovery is going to be a fraction of the time you said. I can spare it."

"It's not Toriko you're still here for, is it?" Yosaku winked.

"That's right, I'm here about Earth," Sunny leveled his gaze.

Yosaku sighed and wandered off.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things were starting to get hard for Teppei. He had commisions he needed to take for the money, and so he asked Yosaku one night if he could go. Yosaku nodded. "Sunny's here to help, after all. Take some time, it'll be for the best."

Teppei wasn't sure what that meant, but still he took some days off to go track down the last known location of Lavender Lotus and found a few seeds. By the end of the week, he'd helped a wild population bloom again, and returned home with a few for cultivation and preservation.

"Where have you been?!" Sunny's shriek greeted him at the door. "You left me to feed this monster by myself!"

"Hey, Teppei," Toriko smiled.

Teppei shrugged. "I had to take a job. I have to support myself too."

Sunny stared at him oddly. "Is that a Lavender Lotus?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I revived them. Some couple wanted them at their wedding, but turns out they'd gone extinct in the wild. Well, there might be some out there, but they needed them right away and figured the easiest way was to revive a recently deceased population."

"It's beautiful." Tendrils of hair caressed the purple petals of the large flower.

"You can have that one," Teppei said. "I've got seeds; those are more useful to me anyway."

"You mean it?" Sunny's eyes lit up.

"Sure." He handed over the flower in its tiny portable vase.

Other than Sunny's strangely amiable greeting, nothing of note happened that day, and the next day he joined Sunny hunting in the norming.

It felt good, familiar. The fields were ripe with memories of he and Sunny hunting, and suprisingly he found those as comforting as the images in the woodgrain of his bedroom walls.

"Lunch?" Teppei asked when they'd amassed a small pile of greens and mammals. Breeze on his ears tickled, as did Sunny's commanding hair. Teppei could sense the microfilments in clearer detail now. Some of them stopped and rested on his body.

"No thanks, I have to prepare for dinner," Sunny said.

"Oh," said Teppei. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"No, you'll see me tonight. At dinner."

"Where?" The word was out of his mouth before he could think to decline, to question.

"House on the Rock. You know it?"

Teppei gasped. "But that's fancy!"

"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm Sunny, the beauty of the Four Kings, and I prefer harmonious establishments. It's my treat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun-dun-dun! Are they going on a date?
> 
> ...Yes, they are.


	9. Full Course Seduction

Teppei reached the restaurant at 6pm, as instructed. Before going in, he gave himself a quick check in the window. He slicked back some stray hairs, checked his white jacket for stains, turned his green turtleneck right-side-out, and pressed a hand down his dark pants to smooth the exceptional rumples. 

Something told him he had Sunny's standards in mind as well as the restaurant's.

Not that it wasn't a high-class establishment with a dress code. Well-appointed patrons trickled in and out of the lobby. Ladies with faux fur coats mingled with gentlemen in suits and hats. Teppei was glad he hadn't just gone with his Reviver's uniform. Though folks tended to bestow special treatment on a Reviver in uniform in Life.

House on the Rock had a regal rock-encrusted exterior, and a dark, intimate interior with glass chandeliers dotting the ceiling like pale jewels. He could see why Sunny might like it. A waiter approached him and said that his dinner partner was already waiting, could he guide him to the table? Teppei nodded and was led through a prairie of cream-colored tablecloths. 6pm seemed early enough to avoid the dinner rush, as the establishment was sparsely populated.

He felt the tendrils glide over his skin first, then he saw their pastel origin, floating out of a booth for two. Sunny glimmered in the restaurant setting, like an opal set in a pewter ring. 

“I already ordered an apertif, I hope you don't mind,” Sunny said as Teppei slid into the small booth.

“I hope you don't mind it being your treat,” Teppei laughed. “Someone like me rarely goes into places like this.”

Sunny raised a glass to his lips. “Surely you can't mean you're poor, Teppei.”

“No, not really. I just don't come to this sort of place without occasion. Not to be insulting, but it doesn't hold a lot of appeal for me.”

“None taken. An appreciation for the finer things in life isn't something that I've come to expect from others. Although I do hope you are moved by this particular experience.”

Teppei's heart skipped a beat, but his awkwardness was overridden by the arrival of candied Crab Nuts in Raspberry sauce. Pleasant chatter followed with Charis Lobster Soup, Tuna Fingerlings, Cinderella Beef, and Golden Carrot noodles. Teppei loved noodles. 

He was wiping the sauce from his mouth, pleased as could be, when the waiter appeared with two cups. Inside were large Lavender Lotus flowers, topped with small dollops of pastel ice cream. 

“Do you like it? Yosaku gave me a recipe for flower freezes. It's all edible.”

“Wowee,” Teppei hesitatingly bit into a thick petal. It had a smooth, rich taste like sweet cream. “It's delicious!”

“And the ice cream in the middle is also floral.”

“Yum. I taste roses and honeysuckle.”

“The green is juniper mint,” added Sunny. “Mmm, it's truly exquisite.”

Their spoons clanked at the bottom of the cups at the same time. Teppei smiled. “That was delicious, Sunny, thank you.” Sunny flushed, or maybe that was his imagination.

A waiter arrived with fluted pink glasses. “Your Cherry Zinfandel.”

Sunny smiled slyly. “A full-course meal isn't over until the drink. Join me on the balcony, Tep?”

Although the inside was nothing to scoff at, House on the Rock was better known for its spectacular view. Set atop a cliff, it overlooked much of the city of Life. Sunset's orange tones saturated the landscape below. 

Teppei and Sunny leaned over the balcony, glasses in hand, soaking in the colored light and air. Sunny's tendrils curled around Teppei's arms and brushed against his face. In the warm light, and warm air, with the deliciously warming dessert wine, Teppei felt ridiculously sated. 

“Thanks again, Sunny. This was really nice. But why go through the trouble?”

Sunny looked poetically at the brimming sunset. “To experience a moment like this. Don't you think the greatest moments are reached through beautiful toil?”

“This moment, huh?”

Teppei looked at Sunny, who glimmered shades of coral, orange and pink. The light cast a softness about his sharp features. His bottom lip at least, looked incredibly soft when the glass dented it and Sunny swallowed the last of his Zinfandel.

“Tep.”

The Reviver instinctively set his empty glass aside. 

More and more of Sunny's tendrils were flocking to him, curling and twisting about his body. Sunny drew a step nearer, searching Teppei's face. 

Teppei leaned in and Sunny gently but firmly met his lips with a kiss. 

The world narrowed to Sunny's warm, insistent mouth against his. He was too busy melting into those inviting lips to breathe, until Sunny broke the kiss. Air only flowed into his lungs for a second before Sunny took his mouth again. 

This kiss went deeper, pressing tongue to tongue. Teppei made a muffled noise into Sunny's mouth, and was rewarded with deeper probing. They were both trembling, even Sunny's tendrils were shaking, and the kiss broke. Teppei pressed his cheek against Sunny's, and Sunny's strong arms clasped around his back. He shivered at the promise in those arms. 

“Will you join me upstairs?” Sunny whispered in his ear. “The hotel gave me a room in exchange for the Lavender Lotus Freeze recipe.”

Teppei's heart raced, but for some reason he couldn't hold back a smile. “Hoo boy. I guess I'll be getting a lot more commissions for those.” 

Their bodies shifted, until Teppei was gazing deep into Sunny's blue eyes. They sparkled with life, brighter than any jewel. 

“I really like you Tep. I think I'll like you even better in bed,” Sunny said.

Teppei's knees turned to jelly. “Me too, Sunny.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WANT TO EAT THAT ICE CREAM.
> 
> Also, now that Sunny has completed his perfect seduction, things get a lot more raunchy from here on out.


	10. First Night

Sunny let Teppei step into the room first and admire the dark finish and glittering colony of jewels that clung to the ceiling. There was a sofa in the middle of the room and a bedroom on a raised platform off to the side. Everything was reds and browns. Not Sunny's preferred palette, but lovely in its own way. 

Anyway, he wasn't taken by anything quite as much as Teppei at the moment. 

With his crisp white suit and tightly-coiled bouffant, Teppei was a gift just waiting to be unwrapped by someone with the proper appreciation. Someone like Sunny. 

It had definitely been worth it to orchestrate a perfect dinner, if this was the dessert. 

“I know the room's fabulous, but I'd like it better if you looked at me instead,” Sunny said. Teppei didn't need any prodding, in two steps he was back inside Sunny's arms. The nervous energy that had been between them in the hall exploded. Sunny coiled around Teppei, caressing the outline of firm muscles in Teppei's back.

Teppei's half-uttered noises of pleasure were delicious. As was the way he squirmed with need. If Sunny had any second thoughts about acting on his attraction, they were rapidly disappearing. 

He stripped the suitjacket off his partner with his hair. Not to show off, it was just that his hands were busy winding under Teppei's shirt. And Teppei was leaning into his touch wherever it went, getting confused and blushing more furiously when he realized Sunny's touch was everywhere. 

Blunt fingernails dug into his sides as the Reviver attempted to return the favor of tactile sensation. 

“Ouch, Tep,” Sunny cringed. “I'm already feeling you enough through my sensors.”

Teppei's mouth latched on to Sunny's neck, his hands pressing flat and less painful along Sunny's sides. “How long have you known I could feel them?”

“A while,” Sunny said, in lieu of trying to think up a real answer as Teppei rubbed against his body, slabs of muscle sliding against his own beautifully formed abdomen. 

He lost his ability to speak completely when Teppei licked his way down his chest and fixated on a nipple. 

“Sunny,” Teppei murmured, sliding his hands over Sunny's face and chest as if to memorize their form. His hot mouth lavished attention across Sunny's sculpted pecs. “Mm, Sunny.” 

“Down, Tep,” Sunny said, pulling gently with his sensors. 

“Okay,” Teppei said and started sinking to his knees. 

Once Teppei was face-to face with Sunny's clothed erection, he barely paused before nuzzling it. Hot breath dampened his pants, and Sunny was oh-so-ready for this. The image of green hair between his legs as his pants were unzipped went right to his already hard cock. Once the pants were off, Teppei paused again—this time in admiration.

“Your cock's beautiful,” Teppei said softly, then began administering soft touches to the base. In little circles, he wound his fingers around the shaft, more caresses than strokes, all the while staring. After the lengthy inspection, Teppei wrapped his fingers around and began pumping. 

The pleasure was gorgeous and Teppei was far more skilled than he'd even hoped. Not that Sunny was a slouch himself, but you know. The motion was electrifying, and Sunny's hips bucked. The tip of Sunny's cock dented Teppei's cheek. 

“Bet you could use a mouth,” Tep said, those amythyst eyes flashing mischieviously. It was all the warning he got before the sly bastard enclosed the tip of his erection with his mouth. God, but Teppei's mouth was blazing hot around his cock. Sunny drown quickly in pleasure watching. 

The Reviver's brow furrowed in concentration as he slid down Sunny's shaft. It made his heart skip a beat to be the center of so much attention. And of so much talent. 

“A...amazing, Tep,” he said, and received a blush over pushed-out cheeks. It was also apparently the best type of encouragement, because with a slow, even motion, Teppei made Sunny's cock disappear. 

He knitted his fingers in the short hairs of Teppei's head. That forced a bit of a choke out of Teppei, and he quickly let go. Teppei slid back up the shaft long enough to tongue the slit of Sunny's cock, then once again pumped his mouth up and down. Little tears were forming in the corner of Teppei's eyes, and he was red from ear to ear. The very picture of an amorous lover. 

Sunny's cock was suddenly left in the air as Teppei stopped to cough. Unconsciously, Sunny's sensors curled around the other man's ribs and throat, determining the problem.

“Thanks,” Teppei said, a bit hoarsely. “Your cock's kinda big.”

“Then I guess you've sucked a few before?” The thought made Sunny jealous and incredibly turned on at the time same time. 

“Let's not talk about that now,” Teppei said, manuevering back to Sunny's cock. He gripped the base and ran his tongue along the sensitive underside.

“Oh, Teppei,” Sunny moaned. He was starting to tremble uncontrollably, in a very good way. 

In response, Teppei planted both hands on Sunny's hips and fucked Sunny's cock with his mouth. The grip was as strong as the suction and Sunny arched even further back. He could no longer see Teppei, but made up for it with feeling. On the verge of coming, his sensors invaded Teppei's body, shifting clothing out of the way to caress the man's perspiring skin.

When he touched Teppei's cock, he was rewarded with a tightening around his own. Further thoughts of exploring Teppei's body short-circuited. He moaned, “Keep that up and I'll come.”

A curl of a smile formed around his cock, and Sunny was done. Hip-bucking, heart-leaping, colors- exploding done. Shaking and losing control of his body and almost falling except for the anchoring points of Teppei's hands done.

Waves of pleasure coursed through his body. He didn't often experience the rarified experience of orgasm and it was absolutely delicious and insanely overpowering. Staring at the ceiling, wishing he could move he whispered, “You're amazing, Tep.”

“Sunny?”

Suddenly green hair was in his field of vision, and firm hands were on his cheeks, patting. “Are you okay?”

“Mm-hmm,” Sunny agreed. “More than okay.”

Teppei's salty mouth moved over his, warm and vibrant and, yes, tasting like his come and wasn't that awkward but he didn't really care. 

Hands lifted his legs and suddenly he was deposited on the couch with Teppei kneeling by his side, kissing his hand. 

“Mm, Teppei, you're a genius at sucking cock,” Sunny said. 

Teppei smiled. “You said so already.”

“You're so good it bears repeating.”

Teppei gave him a lustful look and clambored up onto the couch, which meant mostly on top of Sunny. Sunny happily received Teppei's eager kisses and twined their legs. It seemed Teppei could barely restrain himself. His breath was coming heavy and hot; he was all but humping Sunny's leg. Beautiful, beautiful need.

Sunny reached into Teppei's pants and felt his cock by hand for the first time. From his sensors he already knew it was long and straight, with just the right amount of girth. He lightly stroked it.

For his part, Teppei angled his hips for better access, and nuzzled against Sunny's neck. Little whines escaped from his throat, which Sunny drank up. 

Teppei was already so close to coming that he was shaking, but having Sunny's hand on his cock actually seemed to stabilize him rather than drive him over the edge. Sadly, a long finish wasn't what Sunny had in mind for such a lovely partner. 

“Tep, up,” Sunny said, pushing his shoulder in the right direction. With a little hair assistance, the Reviver was floating in midair, his pants and green briefs being pulled from him. Sunny set his partner down so that Teppei was kneeling over his face. Sunny leaned up, mouth wide. 

“Auhhhh,” was all Teppei managed as he threw his head back. 

Sunny already knew how Teppei's cock tasted, but tasting things with his mouth was always a different, better experience than with his sensors. The tang was rich and the head of the cock was so smooth. 

It was a difficult angle, but the best angle for Teppei to see his cock vanish inside Sunny's beautiful mouth, so he kept it. 

A tense hand landed on his head and Sunny enveloped it with hair. The hair gesture was meant to be both reassuring and controlling. It really wouldn't do to have Tep get the idea that Sunny wanted to be choked with cock. 

Teppei did like to thrust though, so Sunny let him get away with it, as much as he could, the long dick racing toward the back of his throat then rushing out again. But Sunny kept up a rythym too, and then the rythyms started to converge in a way that Sunny had never experienced before. 

It was clear that Teppei was going to come. His thrusts tapered into shallow jerks that Sunny had to open his mouth wide for. A long low moan growled in Teppei's throat. Sunny clamped down hard and sucked. 

With a cry, Teppei's cock shuddered and burst come down Sunny's throat. Sunny backed away hastily, taking as little in his mouth as he could. A rope got painted on his upper lip, and he let some of it ooze out. Other people's fluids could stay out of his body, thank you very much.

Teppei collapsed onto the arm of the couch, heaving with exertion, his bouffant frizzled and a sheen of sweat glistening on his pale skin. Sunny lowered that damp, hot body onto his own, and Teppei clung to him until his breathing slowed and both of them were relatively dry and comfortable in each other's arms. 

“You really caught me off guard,” Teppei said. “With the dinner, and the room... I didn't even know you liked me, Sunny.”

“Why have a build up? It's more beautiful this way, with an explosion of passion.”

“It's kind of late to be saying this, but I really like you, Sunny. I've been attracted to you for a while.”

“Hmmm? When did it start?”

“I think... it was when I saw you get upset over Toriko. It was just... You were really kind. I wanted to know more about you.”

“But when did you become attracted to my body?”

Teppei's thick brows puzzled for a moment, and then he kissed Sunny's cheek.“Tonight, I guess.”

“What?! I was sure you would have figured something out after the Beef Falcon apology!”

“That? I THOUGHT you were flirting with me!”

The Moment of Attraction for Sunny far predated that. It was probably the very moment he'd been seen naked, to be painfully honest. He didn't tell Teppei, it would have been too embarrassing. 

Instead he fell asleep in Teppei's arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, what to do with so much muscle in bed? ;P


	11. Breakfast of Scandal

When Sunny awoke in the middle of the night, he panicked because something was on his hair. He squeezed the offending object only to realize it was Teppei. 

Who he'd had sex with hours before. Why did the thought make him so giddy?

Delicately, he carried the sleeping Reviver to the unused bed, and resumed their snuggle on it, hair safely swept off the side of the bed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teppei awoke to golden morning light and strong arms draped over him. 

What he'd done last night with Sunny was...unexpected. Teppei had lots of one-night stands. The nature of his work encouraged him to form deep, but brief connections with clients, foods, plants, animals, and people. This was just another of those intense sensual encounters that Teppei ought to appreciate for what it was, but hoped it would last longer than one night.

Sunny was beautiful to look at, if a bit sharp even in slumber. He wanted to touch Sunny more, but didn't want to wake him. Instead he got up, admired the room, took a piss, looked at the breakfast menu and ordered something. He figured it would be his treat. 

When the food came, he returned to Sunny to nuzzle him awake. 

Sunny slapped him away with his hair and dug into the pillows. A second attempt, a second slap. A kiss and Sunny's eyelids flickered.

“Tep?” came the sleepy question.

“Mm-hmm,” Teppei replied, gently kissing Sunny's mouth. “There's breakfast.”

Sunny rolled over, stretching like a cat. “It smells lovely.”

“It's eggs and waffles,” Teppei said, pulling the tray onto his lap where Sunny could eat from it. 

Sunny frowned. “Those really should be eaten on a wooden table, with solid metal silverware.”

Teppei nicked a piece of waffle and held it out to Sunny. Warily, Sunny leaned forward and Teppei brushed the baked good over his lips, trailing a bit of honey. Sunny's pink tongue scooped it into his mouth. “Or from your hands.”

Sunny fluffed the pillows and fell back on them like a princess. “More, if you please, Tep.”

“Sure thing,” Teppei smiled. The bites disappeared off his fork and into Sunny's mouth. Sunny had a sensual way with food, the way he relished the golden honey with smacking lips, half-lidded eyes, and tipped-back head when he swallowed.

“Eggs,” Sunny pointed at the cooling yellow pile on the plate. “Aren't you going to eat them?”

“Oh, right,” Teppei said. Teppei really loved eggs, and these were great. 

“You're beautiful,” Sunny said as Teppei finished.

“Ha ha. You're the beautiful one.”

“I give credit where it's due,” he said as he leaned up and took Teppei's month in a kiss. It tasted warm and honeyed.

Teppei let himself get lost in the kiss. His body started tingling at the gentle, meandering touches of Sunny's sensors. The tray had to go, so it went to the floor and Teppei melded himself against Sunny's prone form.

“Mm, Tep,” Sunny murmured. 

Sunny sensors brushed aimlessly over him and just like that, fingers linked and mouths met. Teppei ground against Sunny's hips, careful of their hardening cocks. 

“That won't...work without...lube,” Sunny said between kisses.

“Mm, guess not.” He was about to lick his hand when a bottle bonked against his head. 

“Use this.” Sunny's sensors popped open the bottle and dribbled a pink oil over Teppei hands. 

“Massage oil from the bathroom?”

“Yep.”

Teppei wasted no time getting his newly slick hands on their cocks. Sunny arched under him in pleasure. 

It did feel good, very good, the warm slippery sensation of their dicks sliding against one another. Teppei was a little surprised that Sunny didn't mind being messy, but then, it wasn't his bed and the massage oil looked pretty fancy and smelled strongly of roses. 

Sunny's grip on his hands grew tighter, as did the thousands of tiny grips all over his body. It was like being squeezed by a very sexy feather pillow.

Sunny showed the same tells he had the night before: head tipped back and a rosy flush spreading across his pale skin. His expanse of muscles tightened, displaying massive tension. His cock was rock hard. Unlike before, each of the tendrils spread across Teppei's body electrified at once as Sunny came. 

Sunny's cock spasmed and semen spurted out. As he shook with orgasm, each of the thousand grips twisted, and Teppei cried out. It should have been strictly painful, but in the context he was more than a little turned on. Sunny breathed desperately into Teppei's ear, and Teppei ground against his partner in response, the scent of Sunny's sweat mixing with roses into a heady aroma. 

It didn't take long, really. Just being on top of Sunny, knowing that he'd just made Sunny come and reliving that over in his head soon had him on the edge.

“Come for me,” Sunny said. 

“Yes,” Teppei agreed. Orgasm shot through his body like a burst of cold water, drowning all sensation except for intensity. 

Teppei slurched off and collapsed next to Sunny. “My Master's never gonna let me live this down.”

“Live what down? That you slept with the handsomest man on the planet?”

“Well, not really that. He calls you the Princess of the Four Kings, you know.”

“I'm not a princess! I'm a man, to start with.”

“Ha ha. He just likes to poke fun. He's not such a bad guy.”

Sunny smiled. “Neither are you, Tep.”

“Thanks, I think? What's that mean?”

“Just forget it. I like you.”

“I like you too.” 

“Lert's have sex again after we hunt. At Yosaku's. Maybe Toriko will hear us.”

Teppei didn't see fit to comment on that last part. But he did feel confident that his encounter with Sunny was more than just a one-night stand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I am still obsessed with the idea of Gourmet breakfasts.


	12. A Short Secret

By the time Sunny finished primping in the bathroom, which required a lengthy shower, Teppei had already been down to the dining room to get a real breakfast and discovered there was a party coming and the restaurant would be closed.

Tummy rumbling, Teppei told the bad news to Sunny, who sighed. “Back to Yosaku's then.”

As they approached the familiar wooden door of the Revival Lab, Teppei suddenly got butterflies in his stomach. Yosaku would know, and whatever reaction he had was going to be embarrassing.

But Yosaku turned out not to be there, which was worse, meaning he'd gone to hunt something in their absence and would definitely pile on the guilt later. Toriko was fast asleep, apparently too bored to eat for once in his life. 

The way Sunny waltzed into the kitchen and helped himself to several Gourmet Cases did things to Teppei's heart that he wasn't sure he could take. He stared and watched as Sunny expertly removed Garlic Chicken and reached out—with his hair of course—to snag the appropriate knife. 

“What're you staring at, Tep?” Sunny said, looking over his shoulder.

“You,” Teppei said without thinking. 

Sunny smiled. “I am making the kitchen beautiful right now. But it would be much more seemly if you helped.”

Teppei ruffled his hair and walked in. His heart wouldn't quite down as the two of them set about making some pretty plump sandwiches and a nice fruit cocktail.

The brief touches of Sunny's sensors and the proximity of the man himself drained much of Teppei's interest in the food. Instead, Sunny's long-fingered hands on the blades, his precise steps, the wedging of his thigh against the table—all these were Teppei's meal. 

“Sunny, are you cooking?!” came the voice from the next room. “Did you make something for me?”

Sunny twitched and blushed, muttering something about a nose. “No, you selfish bastard. I made something for me. And Teppei!”

“Aw man.... I like your cooking, Sunny. You never do it anymore.”

“How would you know?” Sunny accused, stepping out into the main room. “You and I haven't cooked anything together since we were kids.”

“I know, but I'll never forget that Duck Venison burger.”

“Hmph! Well, it was a beautiful burger...”

“Can I have some of your sandwich?” Toriko begged.

“No!”

Teppei wandered in to see Sunny plopped at the table and Toriko salivating.

“Aw, Teppei's got one too? I'm so jealous!”

“Hi Toriko,” Teppei said. “We'll go get you something right after this.”

“We will?!”

“We've got to,” Teppei explained. “If Yosaku's out, then it's our job.”

“Fine, but we split up,” Sunny countered. “You try to find Yosaku and I'll do the heavy lifting.”

“Hey, where were you guys last night?”

“A hotel,” Teppei blurted. 

Silence. 

“Uh, I mean, we had a lot to drink at the restraurant and then we ended up staying over there. They had really nice rooms with lots of chandeliers and the wine was pretty great and...”

“You had sex!” Toriko exclaimed. 

“Aaagh!” Sunny shouted.

“Ha ha. Mind if you keep your lips sealed on that one, Toriko?” Teppei said with a wink, hands clasped. “Thing is I don't want Yosaku to find out and make a big deal about it.”

“Don't just admit it!” Sunny looked dumbfounded.

“Oops. Ha ha.” Teppei was sweating bullets.

“Look who's back!” Yosaku kicked open the door. “Got that muscle tonic for you, Toriko.”

“What a coincidence, we were just headed out!” Teppei said. The open door beckoned. “Gotta hunt!”

Face red as a beet, he dashed out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, this one was late AND goofy...


	13. Baggage

Sunny thought Teppei was overreacting, but he did understand the need to keep up appearances. Though Teppei had totally blown that around Toriko. 

Which made it perfectly fair if Sunny got even. 

As Yosaku stared at the door his apprentice had fled out of, Sunny bragged, “I bet you can guess where we were last night.”

“Someplace draining. You look haggard, Sunny.”

“What?!” This was not the reaction he was supposed to get! People were supposed to be more radiant after sex.

“Don't let him ride you so hard next time. Bwa ha ha!” Yosaku laughed. 

“So he fucked you?” Toriko asked. 

“Argh!” These two were impossible human beings and Sunny had had enough! He stormed out. 

Of course, about 20 feet into his march, he realized not only had he failed, but Teppei was going to be pissed at him for telling Yosaku. Le sigh. He didn't want to hide anything, actually. He wanted to proclaim his new love. 

And so he would.

**

Teppei was not pouting. He had obligations and he had to tend to them. Of course, after filling out some paperwork related to the Lavender Lotus job, he didn't have any real obligations. The day was passibly spent talking with other Revivers. 

Gourmet Corp. came up as a topic again and again. They were really tearing things up. The rush he felt thinking of how ingredients needed to be protected somehow reminded him of Sunny. Someone who instead thought of how those things could be hunted. 

With a heavy heart, Teppei headed back to Yosaku's. He had to stop being afraid of his master. After all, what could Yosaku really do?

As he neared the Revival Lab, flowers started to fall from the sky. Teppei looked around in disbelief to see that his immediate vicinity was the subject of a floral shower. Petals of different colors drifted through the air and piled up on the stairs around him. Teppei couldn't walk without crushing blossoms. 

“Hello, Tep.”

Ahead, the source of the flower flurry, was Sunny. His microfilaments sent waves through the flowers, creating a gentle rainbow whirlwind around the two. 

“Let's go back,” Sunny said with a smile.

“Yeah,” Teppei rubbed the back of his head. Sunny's display was a little mortifying, but it seemed like a genuine peace offering. “No sense in beating ourselves up over what Yosaku thinks. Even though I don't want to be teased.”

“That,” Sunny smirked. “Is where the flowers come in.”

Teppei grimaced and followed Sunny to the Revival Lab. 

Sunny's grand entrance in a storm of petals sent Yosaku into a gleeful fit of laughter. Until Sunny arrested his attention with a jerk of his sensors. Hair grasping Yosaku's chin, he said, “Your apprentice and I are in a beautiful relationship.”

Teppei couldn't have turned a darker shade of red. What were the flowers supposed to have done?

“Like a buzzy little bee drawn to a flower, huh? You suit each other!”

“Mrm-hrmm,” Toriko agreed through Corn on the Bone.

“Teppei,” Yosaku said folding his arms. “Stop hiding. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks, myself included.”

“Master!”

“That's right!” Sunny declared. “Love is a beautiful thing that should never be denied!”

“Sunny!” Teppei didn't know who to accuse anymore. “Oh, all right! Master, can Sunny stay here as long as he wants, and will you answer his questions about Earth and not confuse me with any more wisdom?”

“I promise,” Yosaku said.

“You do...?” Teppei wasn't sure what to make of this serious Yosaku. 

“I may break rules but I never break my promises.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Does that make you guys married or something?” Toriko chimed in.

“No!” they shouted in unison. Teppei instantly regretted it, but what else was he supposed to say?

“Love has to be allowed to blossom before it can be planted in the earth,” Yosaku offered. It was a strangely poetic statement from the crude Reviver. 

“So if you aren't getting married, are you guys gonna eat dinner?” Toriko asked.

“Yes, I'm making dinner for everyone,” Sunny said. For the first time since entering, he retracted the protective barrier he had around Teppei. Flowers and all he headed for the kitchen. 

“No peeking!” he demanded, even though there was no door to the kitchen. 

Teppei sat down uncomfortably at the table, missing Sunny's touch already. Yosaku glanced over.

“Toriko's arm is stabilizing, but I've got jobs to take. Think you can help me take care of him for the long haul? I'll pay you.”

“Master...” Teppei's heart raced. Something the master was going to pay him for? Could Toriko even afford the treatment? “Of course I will.”

“How much longer?” Toriko asked. “I've been here weeks already, but even I know this isn't going to take years.”

“Hard to say,” Yosaku brought a light to his cigars. “Your Gourmet Cells are hard to predict. I'd say two years.”

“That's way too long!” Toriko whined. “Komatsu will be done with the Century—ooh!”

Pangs of hunger quieted him, as Toriko dove back into the food pile.

Teppei helped clean up things in the lab. He tried not to look at the kitchen, but it was hard not to catch glimpses of the colorful man maneuvering pans with his hair and flowers flying everywhere. It seemed like Sunny was a very handy kitchen appliance.

“Man, that smells delicious,” Toriko said through a mouthful of vegetables. “I'm drooling!”

“As you should be,” Sunny said. He swirled around and deposited three plates on the kitchen table. 

“Where's mine?!” Toriko shouted. 

“You can't expect us to eat in there with you! That table is filthy!”

“But you can't just leave me out!”

“I'll get a tablecloth,” Teppei said. 

It wasn't often that a square of white fabric solved problems, but it proved a solid compromise. Sunny's irritation only lasted until everyone had a mouthful of the flower fried rice. 

“Yummm! Delicious!”

“Wowee, this is really good.”

“Finally, somebody who knows how to cook around here!”

“Sunny's always known how to cook,” Toriko said, finishing off the last of his rice. “He's got the art down.”

“I'm not that-- Are you done already, you glutton?!”

“It was really good!”

“Did you even taste it?!”

Teppei didn't need the story laid out for him. At some point Sunny had stopped cooking, probably about the same time Toriko became able to stuff entire hams in his mouth. He chuckled.

He'd be glad to let Sunny cook for him any day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another silly chapter. Next one will be steamy. Also I really like the idea that Sunny can cook, but usually doesn't do so unless the person he's cooking for has the proper appreciation.


	14. Squeamish

Teppei offered to clean up the dishes, which gave Sunny time to get a head start beautifying himself, which in turn gave Teppei time to fantasize about Sunny's sculptural form and nurse a partial hard-on.

He ambushed Sunny in the bathroom with a kiss.

Sunny pushed him away playfully. “I'll be waiting in your room after you brush those filthy teeth.” Teppei didn't think his teeth were particularly filthy, but he scrubbed them anyway. And washed his hands and face, and took a dump for good measure. 

He hesistated before ruffling his bouffant out. Somehow he thought Sunny might want to do it.

Knocking on his own bedroom door would be absurd, so he cautiously walked in. Sunny was draped over a cluster of pillows and blankets that Teppei had never seen before in his life. 

Sensors curled around his back and urged him to climb up over Sunny's lounging body. 

“I always wondered how thin these pajamas pants were,” Sunny said, reaching up to brush over Teppei's erection. He prickled with pleasure.

Teppei returned the favor with a kiss and nibbles along Sunny's neck as the other man stroked his cock. He slowly lowered his body until the pajamas pants were the only thing between his cock and Sunny's. 

Sunny tore them off, causing a thrill to shoot up his spine. Sunny's strong hands clasped his back and drove their hips together. He fitted a hand over both erections. Being in Sunny's hands – under his control – was intoxicating. He wanted more of it.

“I want you in me,” Teppei husked into Sunny's ear. Sunny stiffened.

“No,” he stated.

A sinking feeling halted Teppei's arousal. “But...why not?”

“It's simply gross,” Sunny said.

Silence.

“Uh... what if I was in you–”

“No way! Ultra gross!” Sunny said. 

“Will you maybe use your fingers?” Teppei begged.

“It's the same difference!”

Teppei rolled over. “What if you used a toy?”

Sunny searched Tep's face. “You really want to be fucked that bad?”

“Yeah,” Teppei said, a small ray of hope emerging. “I've been thinking about it all day.”

Sunny sat up and turned away. Teppei didn't dare move and disturb whatever thought process was going on. 

“Okay,” Sunny said. “Okay, I'll do it. ONLY with a Gourmet Condom! And I'm not touching that place with my fingers or sensors AT ALL!”

“I can finger myself,” Teppei said.

“No! No one's touching any buttholes!”

Teppei couldn't yell back how much it was going to hurt because then Sunny would start to pout and the whole thing would be off. 

With some searching, Teppei found some of his condoms. He did not ever care to explain to Sunny what they were originally for. Not that it mattered after Teppei lowered the condom down Sunny's shaft with his mouth. The heavy-lidded look from his partner was pure lust although Sunny's cock was less than enthused at the moment. It took a while, but with some kissing and sexy frottage the buzz of nerves was drowned out by a din of pumping blood, eager for release. 

Once he found himself on his back with Sunny lying on top, Teppei was getting ready to ask for penetration. However, there was no way Sunny was getting through without help. So he readied a nail needle and discreetly stuck himself in the lower back. The painkiller was immediate, to the point where he worried he'd administered too high of a dosage. But there was still the edge of feeling around his asshole, and more importantly the internal nerves were unaffected. 

The nail needle was retracted rapidly for fear of Sunny being grossed out. He'd have to see it eventually, but this wasn't the moment. 

Gasping as Sunny sucked on a nipple, he bucked up. “I'm ready,” he whispered. He swung his legs around Sunny's hips and waited to feel a nudge at the door.

Sunny bit his lip as he positioned himself between Teppei's open legs. His cock was hot and Teppei groaned feeling it tentatively press against the loosened ring of muscle. 

“What did you do to yourself, Tep? It's loose...”

“I'm just relaxed,” Teppei said, a little more sluggish than he would have liked. “Let's do this.”

Sunny gritted, and suddenly Teppei's groin was filled with a rush of sensation. The firm pressure filled him, pressing up against his prostate and his cock bobbed as his hips shook. It was everything, everything he wanted.

“Yes,” he swallowed a breath. 

“Tep, you're...” Sunny's awed voice trailed off. “I'm going to go all the way in.”

If he'd felt full with whatever Sunny had been giving him before, he felt ready to burst with the full length of Sunny's cock. It was a uncomfortable, if not painful.

He squirmed, and Sunny pulled back. “Guess I can't take all of you,” he laughed.

“I'm not looking to see,” Sunny said, strained. 

Teppei gasped as Sunny pushed in and out slowly, and since Teppei couldn't feel much besides the pressure, it just felt tight and good. 

“Keep making those noises,” Sunny said breathlessly. He moved more.

Teppei fucked himself back on Sunny's cock. The warm, tingly feeling was racing through him. He reached blindly for Sunny's face and brought it down to kiss it. The rhtym sped up again. 

Teppei was losing control, and his hips moved eractically. Sunny's cock felt so good and strong inside him. Opening his eyes long enough to see Sunny panting above him wasn't too bad either. 

He spread his legs wide, waiting for one last push from Sunny's full length. Sunny delivered and Teppei's joints turned to jelly. His skin sparked.

He felt his body tighten, felt the length of Sunny inside him. Felt everything like reality had turned to shards and pierced him along with Sunny's cock. And then it all focused into one point and he was exploding come all over his belly. 

He was aware of Sunny's cock still throbbing in him as the buzzing subsided. Sunny panted.

“You're amazing, Tep. You make me want to come.”

Teppei blushed. “Then you should come, Sunny.”

“Can't touch it now,” Sunny grimaced, pointedly not looking at where his cock joined Teppei's rear. 

“Then come in me?” Teppei offered. Sunny pouted, but flushed.

“You're cleaning it all out afterward.”

“Okay,” Teppei readily agreed.

Sunny wasted no time in getting back to fucking. It was so damn hot, that massive body straining into him, that he thought he was probably going to come again. 

Sunny set a fast pace, dragged Teppei's hips backward in jerky motions. Although Sunny's eyes were closed in concentration, his sensors crawled over his face, nipples and body, calculating Teppei's reactions. 

No stranger to vocalizations, Tep let him know just how good it felt. How amazing it felt to be the subject of this huge man's pleasure. Sunny had moved from the considerate stage to one focused solely on his own pleasure and Teppei was just was turned on as before. Any moment Sunny would come and Teppei was going to love it.

He didn't have to wait long. Sunny's cock pulsed in Teppei's abused hole and Sunny fisted the sheets with a forced that nearly ripped them apart. At the receiving end of Sunny's orgasm, Teppei gasped at the sheer waves of power rippling around him. He hoped the Gourmet Condom was working, otherwise he'd probably be leaking come the rest of the night. 

When the fierceness of the orgasm subsided, Teppei was half hard again, but not going to be selfish about it or anything. First thing first was getting Sunny out of his ass. 

Best to do it before he was too coherent. He shifted forward and the cock slid out. Immediately he removed the condom and was walking it to the trashcan before Sunny could really inspect it. 

“C'mon,” he said gently. “Let's shower.”

**

Now that they were wrapped up in clean, warm blankets, it was starting to be okay. He couldn't believe he'd done that for Teppei. Logically, he knew that being interested in beauty as he was that some day a beautiful man might want to be fucked in the ass. He hadn't been expecting to actually agree.

Nothing smelled of feces, nor had it really at any point. But the knowledge that his cock had been there was unnerving. Stomach turning. 

It wasn't something he ever, ever wanted to make a habit of. Not even if Teppei told him he looked beautiful doing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The main conflict of the story, as I see it, is that Teppei wants to get boned and Sunny really REALLY doesn't want to do it. I mean, he's the beauty guy, and he thinks a lot of not-even-disgusting things are EW, so stands to reason that buttsex is way out of his comfort zone.


	15. Cake and Eating It Too

Getting quickies from Sunny was Teppei's new favorite pasttime. In the weeks since the sparking of their love affair, Sunny had became a master manipulator of Teppei's overcharged arousal. 

Case in point. Sunny was across the room talking to Toriko as Teppei writhed in the kitchen under a seemingly endless unslaught of sensation. He braced himself on the sink as sensors wriggled into his pants. They wound around his cock, soft and gentle, but the tiny feelers on his nipples pulled unkindly. 

He let out a small whimper and clenched his eyes tight. He knew he had to start looking normal, doing something normal, but his elbows were starting to weaken and any moment he'd start sliding into a pool of bliss on the floor. 

Firmly planting his feet, Teppei reached for a rag and plate and shakily mimicked cleaning. Sunny sensors undulated around his erection. Firm then soft. His breathing was loud and he was glad that Toriko's super senses didn't include super hearing. 

His cock dripped precum, and his hips sought friction with the cabinets. He came like that, semen splattering against the green fabric of his pants. While he still stood panting, Sunny's sensors whisked the white fluid off and into the drain. What little didn't make it ended up forced into his mouth.

He was getting addicted to Sunny's version of cleanup too. 

**

It wasn't all dirty tricks and sneaking around. It didn't seem to be any coincidence that Sunny had set their first kiss during sunset. Sunny loved sunset. Teppei often joined him on the staircase watching the glittering orange globe set. To be honest, Teppei spent that time basking in Sunny's warmth rather than watching the sun, but he was still getting something out of it. 

Learning that Sunny loved sunrise came later. Sunny insisted that they share a room decorated to his tastes, so they had set up one of the end rooms in shades of pink and green and sparkling high-quality things. The day they bought the furniture was very trying, and there was lots of heavy lifting and arguing and Teppei throwing up his hands. It was his room too, after all, and he didn't want statues. 

They'd crashed early, and Teppei was awoken by the morning light. More specifically, Sunny lounging in a satin robe, staring at the sunrise. His white flesh glowed and his face was so calm and regal that Teppei just watched him for a long time. 

And it wasn't just Sunny roping Teppei into things, although that happened enough. Sunny turned out to be a capable assistant. Even though he showed minimal interest in Reviving, he accompanied Teppei on a few small jobs where he did other valuable work like clear the area of dangerous beasts or find them lunch. For someone accustomed to working alone, it was a fantastic luxury. Teppei tried not to get additcted to that too.

**

And although they were capable of acting professional around each other, that didn't mean they weren't having sex almost every night.

At the moment, he was pressing Sunny's face against his hips, driving his cock farther down his throat. The hair he was fisting curled around his arms, urging him forward. 

Kneeling on their bed, protected in Sunny's hair, he thrusted with abandon. He trusted Sunny not to take too much and he trusted himself to give over to instinct and fuck Sunny's mouth as hard as possible. 

He moaned loudly and his eyes rolled back as Sunny gripped his hips and directed his thrusts. Sunny never kept him riding the edge long, and less than a few heartbeats later he was jetting a stream of come down Sunny's thraot.

“Ah... so good,” he gasped. “Gotta catch my breath, wow.”

Sunny's hair caught him and lowered him to the bed. 

“Don't worry about it, Tep. You can rest.”

“No, I want you to come too, Sunny.”

Sunny leaned down for a kiss. Even dulled by orgasm, Sunny tasted sweet. His lips were firm and plush at the same time. 

As Sunny kneeled above him, Teppei scooted down to wrap his lips around Sunny's cock. The thick presense was becoming second nature to have in his mouth. It wasn't routine, he'd never say it was, but Sunny was very particular, and only really liked certain things. Teppei often did his best to (unintentionally) expand that repetoire, but with limited success. 

Sunny moaned delicately as Teppei tongued up and down the length of Sunny's shaft. It was big and the weight and girth of Sunny's cock was felt even more accutely when he pushed it past Teppei's lips deeper into his mouth, probing for the throat. 

A reassuring squeeze of the hip signaled Sunny to start thrusting. If Teppei's concentration hasn't been totally on keeping from choking and slithering his tongue to the sensitive areas of Sunny's cock, he would have lamented the fact that he couldn't play with Sunny's ass at the same time. The position was perfect for it.

Balls were kosher though, so he tended to leave one hand on the hip for guidance and play with Sunny's balls. It didn't do much, but without the aid of sensors there wasn't much else Teppei could reach. 

The routine was working, Sunny was starting to get more vocal and let out little whimpers. His body trembled and Teppei opened his mouth wide to receive the thrusts from that massive cock. It thundered in deeply then started spurting semen on the way out. 

A deposit formed on Teppei's lip and he licked it up. Sunny's semen was delicious, probably because of all the top-quality ingredients as well as the high fat and sugar content in Sunny's diet. 

The Gourmet Hunter flopped to the bed, smothering it with his multi-colored hair. Teppei knew this as the symbol of “snuggle with me,” but instead of nesting against Sunny, he happily climbed on top of his partner. 

“What's that look, Tep?”

“Haha. You know me pretty well.” Teppei slid down until he was seated on Sunny's hips. “Just thinking about how I want to feel your cock inside me.”

“Ugh!” Sunny flung an arm over his face.

“Ha ha, yeah. I know. Anyway, I'm getting kind of hard again. I'll get the lube so I can grind on you and you don't have to move or anything.”

“I'll think about it.” Sunny whispered.

“Oh, uh, I'll wait then.”

“I'm not talking about the lube, you idiot!” Sunny snapped. “About the other thing. I'll think about it.”

Teppei bent down and caught Sunny's lips in a deep, slow kiss. 

“Thanks.”

Sunny blushed and batted him with a hair punch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teppei's getting everything he wants, really, but bless his one-track mind, he can't help thinking about getting skewered by Sunny, *wink*.
> 
> Kinda the vignette section here, with short sexy scenes.


	16. Time of Trials

It wasn't like they were together all the time either. Teppei often went down to Mother Wood to keep a finger on the pulse of the Reviving world. Although he liked hunting with Sunny, sometimes he let Sunny do it alone, or he did it alone. He wasn't entirely sure what Sunny did during his free time. 

During Sunny's absences, he sometimes found himself talking to Toriko. One day, dinnertime arrived without Sunny or Yosaku showing up, so Teppei sat down with Toriko.

“Hope you don't mind,” Teppei said, bringing a plate to Toriko's feast. 

“Nah,” Toriko said. “Why would I?”

“Guess not,” Teppei said. They ate in silence for a while. Toriko had been eating non-stop practically since he'd arrived. Many of the things he'd eaten had been provided by Teppei. And yet they so rarely talked about it. 

“What's your favorite food?” Teppei asked.

“All of them,” Toriko said. That was probably an honest assessment.

“What about the favorite thing you've ever hunted?” Teppei was really on a roll in the conversation department. 

“Huh, maybe Garara Gator. Yeah.”

“But those are only Capture Level 5, right?”

“Yeah, but that's what I met Komatsu over. It was the first time I protected someone on a hunt.”

“You're more sentimental than you look,” Teppei said.

“What about you, Teppei? You're related to Knocking Master Jiro. Didn't you want to be a Gourmet Hunter?”

Teppei explained why he'd given up his childhood dreams of following in his grandpa's footsteps. He was about to ask if Toriko'd always wanted to be a Gourmet Hunter when--

“Gack!” Toriko choked.

Immediately, Teppei readied his nail needle. A dose of Fertility Seed would keep Toriko conscious, long enough for Teppei to give his semi-professional opinion on what the hell had just went wrong. 

Toriko crumpled over, spitting blood. Internal organ damage was likely, or no, some kind of thinning of the throat tissue after too much food. There were too many possibilities --

“Yo!” Yosaku burst through the door, a clear bag of insects over his shoulder. Teppei had rarely been so relieved to see his master. 

With a flurry of hands and needles, Yosaku and Teppei sedated Toriko and gave him an intravenous feed of blood. Yosaku explained the side effects to Toriko, who gritted his bloodied teeth and coughed. 

After the first round of Medicine Bees had been administered, Yosaku brought Teppei into the kitchen. As he scrubbed the blood off his hands, the Red Reviver gave a more in-depth explanation. 

“Just like I told him, these are going to be trying times. Not just for him, also for us. There's going to be an onslaught of maladies as his body breaks down and rebuilds itself, from organ failure to disease. This is going to test your medical knowledge. He's experiencing a disintegration of his abdominal lining and hemoragging in the liver right now. The rest of his internal organs are gonna go one-by-one, maybe several times over. It's our job to keep the dead tissues from getting infected.” 

“We're not going to stop the organ failure?” Teppei asked.

Yosaku stared at him. “It's a metamorphosis. Things have to die.”

“Sorry, I should have known. But usually we're trying to keep things alive. Y'know as a Reviver, you're always thinking about keeping things living instead of making them die. Although that has to happen too, for somethings to keep living. Gosh, it's hard to keep--”

“Shut up, Teppei.”

“Sorry, Master. Um, I'd say more stimulants are dangerous now. How about Hemoglobin Worms?

“As a powder, 300 mg.” 

“Antiseptic bacteria, I'd say a teaspoon.”

“Suspira variety.”

“Actually, wouldn't the Sirolina be better?”

“Good boy, Teppei.” Yosaku rolled down his sleeves and clasped Teppei on the shoulder. “You're going to be in charge of feeding the Medicine Bees.”

“Aww, Master!”

“Not buts!” Yosaku grinned and stomped back out into the lab. 

Medicine Bees metabolized whatever they ate into a painkiller/anti-inflammatory/antibiotic. Making them incredibly useful, but also overhunted. They were a species that Teppei had been called in to conserve from poachers before.

So it was with experience that he set up a covered area and filled it with plants for the heavy, slow-moving insects to rest on. They'd quickly drain the flowers he put in there, so after releasing the bag into the pen, he went to the kitchen to make bee feed. 

The bottle of refined honeysuckle reminded him of the ice cream he had shared with Sunny the night of their first date. He was just reaching for some Meaty Bacteria when a shriek filled the air. 

“Yosaku!” 

Sunny stood in the doorway, hair radiating from his head. “What did you do to Toriko?!”

“Toriko's entered into side effects. He's going to be fighting for his life for a while.”

Teppei started towards Sunny, but was propelled back by a vanguard of bristling hairs. 

“You never mentioned anything about his life being in danger from this!”

“Do you think he would have chosen anything else?”

“Now fellas--”

Sunny whirled on him, hairs poking. “Tep! How could you!”

“No, Sunny, no one was trying to hide anything.”

Toriko coughed up more blood, hardly aware of the argument going on around him. Sunny looked like he was about to throw up.

“He'll pull through, ha ha,” Teppei rubbed the back of his neck.

“You think this is funny, Tep?! You two are awful brutes! I can't be here!”

All of a sudden, Sunny's sensors were gone, slamming the door behind him. 

Teppei looked at the door, and looked at Yosaku. Should he go after Sunny?

Toriko coughed again, and Teppei's Reviver instincts kicked in. He couldn't leave a wounded person.

**

Teppei didn't notice Sunny hadn't come back until that night in the bathroom. As he brushed his teeth, he thought of how Sunny would usually be primping for bed, far too lively for someone grooming themselves. He'd be using products--

There were no products. Toothbrush discarded, Teppei rushed to Sunny's room. 

It was empty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drama~! Medical thriller! So here I am getting back in touch with the canon for a bit. Just a bit.


	17. What the Doctor Ordered

On a train with a hot tea in his hand and a plate of pastries in front of him, Sunny finally began to relax. 

What had he been thinking, staying at that dodgy Reviver's place for so long? The man clearly didn't know what he was doing and was killing Toriko. He was going straight to the IGO to get a real doctor and he'd never go back to that place again. 

The sugar crystals on the crumpet melted perfectly in the tea. It was a lovely harmony. Yes, peace. Things would be all right soon. The china was delicate, the spoon silver, and the flowers vivacious. 

Shit, flowers. Would Sunny never be able to look at them again without remembering the taste of Teppei's sweet mouth?

Ugh, but he couldn't stand to think of that bear of a Reviver and his green cub. He expected more from Teppei, from someone who was so skilled, but he had let his master do such a horrible thing to Toriko. 

Yes, he'd call someone in the IGO right now. 

“Hello? Sunny?” Mansom's voice rumbled over the phone. “What's going on?”

“I need the name of a good doctor,” Sunny said, his voice cracking. “Not someone from the lab, a real doctor who can make a house call.”

“What happened? You get yourself hurt?”

“As if! Look, who lives near Life?”

“Huh. Well, there's probably someone nearby. I'll call ya right back!”

Sunny frowned at the phone, at another crumpet.

“Sunny, you there? Alright, here's the guy's number. He's a friend of Ichiryu. He's pretty famous. He's not exactly a doctor, but if there's something wrong with ya he'll fix you right up. Here's the address.”

“NO! No more 'almost a doctor.' I want a real doctor!”

“C'mon, he's not far away, so just go there.” Mansom said. 'He's good with Gourmet Cells.”

Those were the magic words. So Sunny found himself getting off the train the next morning in a mid-sized resort town and standing at the entrance to a cottage resort.

Hopefully the man was on vacation there and not a denizen.

There were lots of small cottages, and he found the address was for one of them. As he approached, he sent out his sensors and was rewarded with a stiff drink of alcohol. 

“Ugh!' Sunny retracted his sensors, but the scent of booze was still strong on the air. It was coming from the exact cottage he was supposed to go to. 

He really should have turned around. Instead he knocked and after some crashing about inside, a gap-toothed white-haired midget opened the door. 

“Hello,” the man said. “You must be Sunny.”

“I'm not!” Sunny shouted and twirled away. Whatever that person, that thing was, he was not having anything to do with it. He stormed down the street. Why was everyone betraying him these days? Toriko shouldn't have gotten his arm blown off in the first place! Then he let himself get attracted to a no-good con man and now even Mansom was pranking him. 

There were no restaurants open that early, so Sunny installed himself at a cafe and had many angry cups of coffee. 

About when he was ready to get up and head to a spa, an older gentleman with a white bouffant approached. 

“Mind if I sit down, son?”

“If that's what you want,” Sunny huffed. He instantly regretted being so rude to an old man (bouffants just rubbed him the wrong way today), and pulled the chair out with his hair. 

“Ah, I've never seen those sensors of yours in action before. They're pretty handy.”

Sunny's eyes widened and his sensors unconsciouly reached out to the old man, who tasted of...alchohol.

“You!” Sunny shrieked. 

“You caught me a bit too early this morning. Hadn't had a chance to recover. Ichiryu said you'd be in the area.”

Sunny was speechless. The man he'd seen that morning was a stout midget, but the person before him cut a strong, tall figure.

“Excuse me, do you serve beer?” the old man asked a waiter. 

“Who are you?” Sunny gasped.

“Jiro. Didn't your old man tell you? I don't suppose you'd remember me from when you and your sister were little. You two being the youngest and all.” To the waiter, “I'll have five.”

Sunny could hardly believe he was speaking to Knocking Master Jiro, famed Gourmet Hunter. Mansom had neglected to include that detail. Although it did explain why the old man looked so familiar.

“You're Tep's grandpa?!” Sunny burst.

Jiro perked up. “Oh, you know my Teppei?”

Sunny blushed. Dark, deep and instantaneously. “Yes.”

“Are you two friends? What's he up to?”

Do not say “more than friends” or ”sucking my cock” to Knocking Master Jiro!! “He's...busy.”

“Yosaku always does keep him busy. Well, anyway, what did you want to talk to me about, sonny?” 

Sunny's mouth flopped open, but the words didn't come out. How could he accuse Yosaku of being a fraud when he seemed like old buddies with Jiro? It would be ugly.

“Can a Reviver and a Gourmet Hunter be friends?”

“That's a strange question. Hmm, yes. After all, besides Setsuno, Yosaku was the only one to ever cure one of my hangovers.”

“So you trust this Yosaku.”

“Oh yes. Next to a chef, a Reviver is the best person for a Gourmet Hunter to have in their life. People who look after your body are a necessity. But people who can look after your body and mind are an even greater necessity.” Jiro grinned, revealing he was still as gap-toothed as ever. “Just look at me! I should be dead right now.”

“How old are you?”

“Don't know anymore.”

“That's too old!”

Jiro laughed as the waiter brough his five beers. He rapidly drained the first and cracked open the second. 

“I guess you really should be dead if you drink like that.”

“This is my lifeblood!” Jiro smiled. “Now, what else is ailing you, Sunny?”

Sunny smiled, for the first time in what felt like days. “Care to share your beer?”

 

**

In the next days, Teppei wished he'd thought to get Sunny's number. It was just one of many things he didn't know about Sunny, the top of which being Where Sunny Was.

Taking care of Toriko was a full time job, and they were going through supplies like crazy. Blood went right through Toriko's system, and he had to be constantly monitored for signs of heart failure. Or rather, heart failure was inevitable, so Teppei and Yosaku made parts of it fail in succession so it didn't all go at once. 

It was tough work, and when Teppei's shift was over, he really wished he could be collapsing into Sunny's arms rather than the cold, lumpy bed. 

What had happened? Had the Gourmet Hunter freaked out at the sight of too much blood? That seemed impossible. Did he love Toriko so much he couldn't stand to see him in pain?

Teppei hugged his pillow. Now that he thought about it, Toriko had incredible influence over Sunny. It made him jealous. This was just a taste of what was to come when Sunny escorted Toriko away, and they all returned to their lives. 

He groaned and rolled over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fucking love Jiro. So glad there was a place for him in this fic.


	18. The Hangover: Part IV

Sunny stared at the ceiling, because he couldn't move. His body was lead, even his sensors were plastered to the floor. 

Plastered all right. The whole cottage reeked of alcohol. And vomit too, and Sunny had no one but himself to thank for that. Even a Gourmet Hunter's metabolism, apparently, couldn't handle three bottles of Summer Whiskey on top of Amber Wine...Toasted Champagne...

Back on the ceiling, things were getting interesting with some dust motes drifting through the rays of noonday light. There was a charming little gabled skylight up there. And also, Jiro's face peering at him.

“Feeling alive, Sunny?” it asked. Somehow Jiro had shrunk, and it wasn't the alcohol, as Sunny had thought while they were drinking. Or rather, it was the alchohol, but not the fact that Sunny had been drinking. 

“Ugggh,” Sunny moaned. 

Jiro left him to lie for the rest of the day. Sunny passed in and out of consciousness. When the sky became orange, he sat up. The room swayed, but he made it to the bathroom and back. Jiro was in the kitchen, swigging a beer and looking out the window. He had an apron on and there was a pot of something on the stove. It was terribly domestic.

Sunny stumbled into a chair. “I'm so, so sorry.”

“No need,” Jiro said. “Anywho, I've got Yosaku's hangover cure on the stove.” He hobbled over and ladled a bowl of dark blue broth. 

Sunny eyed the bowl with trepidation. Finally, he set his spoon to it.

The moment of truth tasted like flowers. Bland, filling flowers, but flowers nonetheless. By the time the bowl was half empty, Sunny was feeling like himself and contending with a new feeling of intense shame and stupidity. 

“Mind if I ask something, Jiro?” Sunny said. “What would you do if I made your grandson really unhappy?”

Jiro took a nip off his bottle and answered, “I'd probably help you see the error of your ways.”

“Thanks, gramps,” Sunny grinned. 

“Bring him a make-up present,” Jiro added. “He always likes presents.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos!


	19. Homecoming

“Shoulda figured the elbow would be the roughest part,” Yosaku grimaced, shaking the blood off his hands onto the floor. 

“You said it, Master,” Teppei agreed. His own hands were clean, but his vision was getting fuzzy. He and Yosaku were pulling 4-hour shifts, which meant their sleep was broken up. It also meant shifts where Teppei was on his own, and taking care of human beings had never been his forte. At the moment, it was early evening and they were both awake. 

The elbow was just starting to form, and they'd had to start injecting pure Peppermint Cane into Toriko's system to keep him from collapsing. Toriko would convulse, and Teppei had been holding him down. 

“I'll get some Medicine Bees,” Teppei said, heaving himself toward the back room. 

At first he couldn't tell because it was dark, but once he flicked on the light, he realized there was a dire problem. They were out of bees. Without them, Toriko would probably die. 

“We've got a big problem, Master!” Teppei shouted. 

“Think this will be enough?” came a familiar voice. 

There stood Sunny, making a grand entrance as always, a huge bag of Medicine Bees held aloft. 

“Sunny!” Teppei ran into the lab.

Suddenly it wasn't just he and Yosaku anymore. Sunny's capable hands were there setting up the bee nets and mixing feed and organizing the kitchen. Teppei didn't dare look, in case Sunny decided to disappear. 

“He's not a mirage,” Yosaku joked. “Go tell him to put his damn bags back in the room.”

“Yes, Master!”

Sunny's sensors caressed him before he got into the kitchen, but quickly drew back. Teppei stared at Sunny's broad shoulders, unusually dirty and sweaty, white T-shirt sleeves rolled up to showcase thick, muscular biceps. 

“Sunny, you're beautiful.” It slipped out. 

Sunny turned around, a sheepish look on his sharp face. “I'm sorry, Tep. Can you forgive me?”

“Ha ha, I guess I can.”

Then suddenly he was pulled into an embrace. Bowled over, rather, as Sunny bent him backwards for a deep kiss. With Sunny's lips pressed against his, all the sexual feelings that had been squashed for almost a week welled up. Teppei let Sunny's arms and hair support his weight as he ran his hands over Sunny's gorgeous back, neck, ears, anything he could get his fingers on. 

Sunny let go as well, leaving his hair to holding them both up while he shoved a hand down the front of Teppei's pants. 

The sensation was almost too much, no, it was too much, but Teppei moaned anyway. “We should be together more often, Sunny.”

“We're together now,” Sunny whispered. 

Teppei grabbed the firm globes of Sunny's ass and pulled their bodies together. Sunny's blue eyes gazed at him as he pressed his clothed erection against Sunny's stomach. 

Sunny bit back a moan of pleasure, and Teppei knew he had done something right when Sunny dumped him on the counter and proceeded to kneel down to blow him. 

Sunny's mouth, where to start? There wasn't a better mouth he'd ever come across. Nothing was so silky and slick and so attentive to his cock. But it wasn't enough to lie back and take it, he thrust deeply into that mouth, and Sunny took it. 

Teppei draped his legs over Sunny's shoulders and used those to control him too. Fucking Sunny's face was something that he could do all day. Except not for long today, when he was so on edge, body screaming with adrenaline and anxiety and a relief that felt nothing like peaceful. 

A high whine and then heavy gasps escaped his throat as he came. Sunny spat the seed into the sink, then kissed him. 

“Fuck me, Tep.”

Of course he didn't mean with a cock, in his ass. That would never be Sunny. But he did mean against the wall, Teppei's hand slick with oil sliding up and down furiously. As Sunny came, Teppei rested his head against Sunny's chest to hear the thundering of his heart. 

“It's not...enough,” Sunny panted.

“No,” Teppei agreed. Whatever fire was burning in him was out of control. Sunny was fanning the flames.

They stumbled back to the bedrooms. 

Sunny tossed him on the bed and was on top of him seconds later, hair curling around his arms, stripping him. Sunny was always posssesive, but the way he manhandled Teppei in that moment was nearly dehumanizing. 

Teppei could play at that too, sliding a leg over Sunny's hip and gripping the back of Sunny's neck until he'd bent Sunny down. He captured Sunny's mouth in a possessive, probing kiss. They squirmed and kissed until their cocks were filled with blood. 

Suddenly Sunny got up. He retrieved a condom and threw it at Teppei. 

It landed in his hair. And like that, the smolder spell was broken. 

They both laughed, holding on to each other. Then Sunny ran his fingers deep into Teppei's green bouffant and ripped it apart. 

Long strands of hair curled around Teppei's face. 

“I've always wanted to see you like this.”

“You saw it every morning.”

“Oh, then I meant like this.”

He grabbed tufts of green hair and pulled Teppei against his crotch. Teppei tongued the erection next to his face and Sunny eased up on the grip until Teppei was swallowing mouthfuls of cock. The way Sunny cupped the back of his neck was dangerously strong, and he choked several times.

“It isn't going to work that way.”

“But you squirm and tighten when I do.”

Teppei shivered hearing the dirty words from Sunny's mouth.

“Then let me ride you,” Teppei said. 

The tenseness of the request couldn't halt the forward motion between them. 

“Okay, fine, if that's how you want it.”

Teppei leaned his head in. “Sit down” he winked. 

While Sunny yanked his hair and placed kisses down his neck, Teppei opened a second condom and fingered himself through it. The job was rushed, very rushed, but at least he wouldn't have to anasthetize himself. Well, he thought as he jabbed himself with the nail needle, not too much. 

Sunny bit the side of his neck and he moaned. He had to jerk himself back to sit in Suny's lap. It felt nice to have his chest against Sunny's massive one. But that sensation, and all the ones before, was overwhelmed by the intensity of lowering himself onto Sunny's cock. 

The incredible stretch was exactly as he remembered, and he had to go slow.

“You're trembling, Tep,” said Sunny.

“Ha ha, you're kinda big, you know,” Teppei replied.

“Let me be the one to move.”

“Please” Teppei begged. His reward was a blood-rushing swell of cock inside his ass. For a second he couldn't remember why he'd wanted to do it so bad, when it hurt enough to take his breath away. 

Sunny was panting and jiggling his hips up.

“Feels good, Tep. You feel good.”

Teppei's cock throbbed at the knowledge Sunny was enjoying it. Actually enjoying anal sex with him! 

As Sunny's hands landed to guide Teppei's hips up and down, he realized just how much Sunny was into it. It was now up to Teppei to see how much he could handle before he passed out, either of happiness or pain. 

But it got better, slowly. Sunny wasn't thrusting too hard, or at least until Teppei started to keep up. Once he felt stretched enough, he sank down with Sunny's entire shaft inside of him. They both gasped. 

Teppei worked his way up to fucking himself on the head of Sunny's cock. He felt how tight the passage was by how much his delicate muslces stretched to accommodate Sunny. But with the angle he started hitting, pleasure began to flood him. He leaned back, making Sunny's cock rub against his prostate with each thrust. 

Pleasure built in his belly, increasing with each dip of his hips. “Keep going...like that...” he urged. 

Then the moment came. Orgasm took him by surprise, ripping a cry from his lungs and turning his whole body into a stiff-limbed marionette, every movement controlled by Sunny's magnificent thrusting. In the moments after, he slid down Sunny's cock, unable to control his body. 

The deep penetration elicted a moan from Sunny. “Mind if I put you on your back?” Sunny asked breathlesssly. 

Teppei shook his head. Anything at all Sunny wanted to do was fine by him. 

So he found himself on his back, legs spread wide and Sunny between them, wishing he hadn't come already. Being fucked by Sunny was a beautiful fantasy and it was playing out in real time. 

It hurt, of course, as sensation started to re-colonize his lower parts, but it was easy enough to ignore when Sunny was thrusting into him. Sweat beaded on Sunny's brow as he fucked faster. His hips jerked and slammed against Teppei's ass, building into a cressendo until Sunny gave a final push and gushed semen into Teppei's cavity. 

They stayed joined, even after Sunny softened. Teppei's ass was sore, but no way would he rush Sunny. 

“I'm glad you came back,” Teppei said softly.

“It was ugly of me to leave,” Sunny replied.

“How long are you going to stay? Because you know you can stay as long as you want.”

“I'll stay as long as I'm welcome.”


	20. Knit Together

It took 6 months for Toriko's arm to heal. For about a month, as the complexity of the elbow materialized, all three of his caretakers were up late nights. After the elbow, though, things slowed down for a long time. 

Yosaku must have been impressed with all the sleep he was getting because he had nothing but good things to say about his favorite Gourmet Princess.

“Maybe I oughta keep Sunny around full time.”

“Really, Master?”

“Hell no! That's like keeping a tiger in a canary cage. That's against the rules!”

“The Revival Lab's only like a canary cage because of the number of experiemental deaths that have happened in it.” Teppei muttered. Then louder, “Why did you ask me to stay in the first place, Master?”

“Because you'll always be my apprentice,” Yosaku smiled widely. 

“But you've let Sunny stay all this time and given him work to do,” Teppei countered.

“Because the two of you are workaholics. If I didn't give you something to do, you'd go search it out elsewhere. For the two of you, that's always going to be in separate places.”

“Oh.”

“Listen. I wanted to give you this time together before you both go live your lives.”

Teppei didn't know what to say, because Sunny was his life now. But Reviving was his life too. He was going to have to find a way to permanently join them.

**

Toriko was down to his wrist and it looked like his hand would be complete soon. Sunny had gotten a call from the IGO telling him to come see Ichiryu. He hoped it wasn't about anything he'd done to Jiro. 

He left Teppei in bed to start early. It would take a day or two to get to IGO headquarters. Honestly, couldn't the old man respect people's time?

When Sunny arrived, the old man was lounging on his deck in a tacky shirt and shorts. Sunny never doubted where Toriko and Zebra got their fashion sense from. 

“So Sunny, where's this Reviver friend of yours?”

“I don't see how that's any business of yours.”

“You should have brought him.”

“If you wanted me to bring him, you should have asked!”

“Oh well, water under the bridge. How's Toriko?”

“Just fine. He's tough. I hope you didn't call me all the way out here to chat about that glutton.”

“And what if I did?”

“Then why didn't you just call?!”

And Sunny wondered why he spent as little time dealing with the IGO as possible.

But the old man did have some interesting things to say. They talked about Earth, and the Gourmet World. He learned that Coco was already preparing to enter it, and that Ichiryu could give Sunny training if that's what he wanted. 

“I do.”

“Great! Then go back to Yosaku. He'll take care of your training.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Isn't it great that you're already friends?”

“We're not.”

“Then bring your Reviver friend next time. Is he your partner?”

“Yes, I mean, no. He's not a chef.” 

“Well, think about getting a partner.” 

Nights later, when Teppei held him in his arms after sex, Sunny broached the question.

“Do you think Revivers and Gourmet Hunters can be partners?”

“You mean partners like Jiro and Setsuno? Hmmm. I don't think so.”

“It doesn't make sense, does it? Someone's got to cook the food.”

“You're pretty good at cooking,” Teppei said, squeezing Sunny. “Maybe I'll take up hunting and you can become a chef.”

“As if!” Sunny couldn't help smiling. 

**

When Toriko finally emerged from the jelly, arm like new, Sunny was the first to give him a hug. But when Toriko hurried off toward Komatsu and the Century Soup, Sunny didn't feel any particular need to join him. Toriko was no longer his pass to stay in the Revival Lab. He belonged there. 

Yosaku gave him quite a beating when he tested himself for readiness to enter the Gourmet World. And when he got back, Teppei patched him up and cooked him a nice meal and gave him a blowjob. It was all rather nice. 

But Yosaku had a point. He wasn't strong enough to enter the Gourmet World. He was going to have to train, and that meant leaving the oasis of love he'd been resting in. 

“It's not like we'll never see each other again,” Sunny said. 

“I'll go to my outpost in Knocking Wood. I can take a lot of jobs out there and it isn't far from the Road of Three Hells.”

Sunny smiled, and was met with a beaming grin from Teppei. Somehow, it was going to work. 

**

Teppei knew it wasn't all going to magically work out. But he had learned something from Sunny, namely, the value of grand gestures.

That didn't stop him from being entirely frantic as he looked at the piece of land he'd just purchased on the outskirts of Life. It hadn't been that expensive, but the phone call he was about to make would be. 

“Smile Agency.”

“Hello, I'm, uh, looking to build a house.”

“The waiting list is a year. Give us your information and we'll get back to you with an estimate.”

“Actually, I was hoping to get it done sooner than that. Like in the next month.”

“No can do, we're booked solid.”

“Thing is, I'm a friend of Toriko...”

“Toriko?!”

“...and he said that he already put my name in for priority construction.”

“Goddamn Toriko... Did you know I'm making another house for that asshole? He keeps eating them!”

“Haha. I was just feeding him for half a year. He can sure eat a lot.”

“I know, right? Anyway, you must be Teppei. Well, I can send a crew out next month, so let's talk design. You're gathering all the supplies yourself?”

“Yes, they're very specific.”

Forgoing payment and asking Toriko for a favor instead was going to be entirely worth it.


	21. Gourmet Conclusion

Sunny rode the train to Life with guilt and anticipation writhing in his stomach. Time had slipped away from him and in the past months he'd seen little of Teppei as he'd trained constantly. But the training energized him. He'd never felt so alive, and the thought that he'd be sharing that energy with Teppei soon made him happy.

Teppei had suggested they meet in Life, which suited Sunny just fine because he was dying for a hair softening treatment and a high-class manicure. Teppei said he'd arrive first, so it surprised Sunny when he disembarked and there was no mop of green hair to be seen. 

He pulled out his phone to call and noticed a message. It read “Gate 3, pink carriage.”

Well. Teppei was learning some new romantic tricks, or there had been an emergency. Sunny made his way to the rear of Life Station, and passed under a large gateway reading “3.” 

Turning the corner was like walking into a fairytale. There was a pink carriage all right, drawn by gleaming white Homing Pegasi. A pathway of flowers led to the carriage door, being tended by a familiar green suit. Teppei bowed. 

“Are you taking me to dinner?” Sunny asked, pleased. 

Teppei smiled. “It's something a little more extravagant than that.”

“Then I'm in,” Sunny's smile broke into a shiny, toothy affair and he swooped Teppei into his arms. 

They kissed, Teppei's flavor swirling under his tongue and the shape of his lover's body tingling along his sensors. Teppei hummed in pleasure. He let Sunny carry him into the carriage. 

“It's not... mmm... going to be...mmm... a long ride,” Teppei tried to get a word in edgewise as Sunny pinned him to the seat with kisses. His protests melted into a long moan as Sunny's mouth found his ear. 

Sunny drank in Teppei's taste with his sensors, enjoying its tangy manliness. And Teppei was so responsive, just a nibble on his ear had his partner arching up against Sunny's own firming arousal. And he was squirming so much...

“Sunny, stop,” Teppei turned his head to avoid the kisses. “You're going to...unh...miss it.”

“What am I going to miss?” Sunny teased.

“I bought a house for us,” Teppei blurted.

Teppei clamped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide. Sunny gaped. 

“Tep, that's great!” Sunny cried. 

“Ugh, me and my stupid mouth,” Teppei covered his whole face. Sunny pulled him up into a sitting position, talking excitedly. 

“You bought us a house in Life? What's it like? Is it downtown? Don't tell me you got a place next to Yosaku!”

“Yes,” Teppei answered, peeking out from behind his hands. “And no, and well, you'll have to wait and see, but I bought us a house to live in.”

“Tep,” Sunny leaned in. “That's the most beautiful thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Suddenly the carriage jolted to a stop. The Homing Pegasi hovered inches above the ground in a cozy neighborhood full of greenery. Sunny eagerly peered out the window. 

“Are we there? Which one is--”

Sunny broke off in mid-sentence, because he knew. He knew which one it was. He exited the carriage, drawn to it like a bee to a flower. 

A flower indeed. The whole house was flowers. Gigantic flowers formed the structure and countless small flowers filled in the rest. Organic arcs of heavy-duty plant architecture delineated the structure. It wasn't that the flowers simply decorated a wooden structure, no, it was all made out of flowers and followed the swooping logic of plants. 

He didn't dare step on the lawn of tiny strawberries, blueberries and mossflowers with his feet. So with his sensors out, he floated toward the green, wet edges of the soft, colorful structure. Under two thick Bird of Paradise stalks, he found a door of skittish ferns that withdrew at his touch. 

If he thought the outside had been marvelous, the inside was breathtaking. It was like being inside the dappled light of a beautiful forest. It was a large space with two floors. Sturdy green vines and stalks twisted into furniture (though the kitchen gleamed with rainbow stone – he'd have to check that out later). A stand of Daylight Lillies bloomed as he passed. 

“Sunny, are you all right? You're shaking,” Teppei said, coming up behind him.

Throwing himself into Teppei's arms was all he could do.

“It's so...beautiful... It's splendid beyond anything I've ever... Oh!” A sob wracked Sunny and tears started streaming out. 

“I'm glad you like it,” Teppei said gently, stroking Sunny's hair. 

“I... I love it,” Sunny said. He held Teppei's arms tightly. “It's you, Teppei. It's inside of you....it's beautiful.”

“Me? Ha ha. I didn't notice,” Teppei grinned sheepishly. “But...”

“I want to stay here,” Sunny interrupted. “With you, together.”

“That was the thought,” Teppei said. 

“More than I've ever wanted to be anywhere,” Sunny continued, his words were flowing now. “I want to be with you. Teppei, you are the most beautiful creature on the planet.”

“I love you,” Teppei said. 

Sunny's eyes welled up and he burst into another round of tears. “Stop being so beautiful!”

“You're beautiful too,” Teppei said, putting his arms around Sunny again. “This is all because I want to be with you.”

Sunny said nothing, but softly trembled and retracted his sensors until they formed a cocoon around he and Teppei.

“Will...” Sunny started. No, it wasn't quite right. He withdraw his hair from Teppei and let it fall behind him as he kneeled on one knee in a beam of light. He looked up at Teppei, green head framed by a halo of flowers, and took Teppei's hand in his.

“Will you be my partner?” Sunny asked. 

Teppei's eyes went wide. Followed by a pregnant silence.

“You can answer anytime,” Sunny said. 

“I can be your partner? But I thought a Gourmet Hunter and a Reviver...”

“Isn't it more beautiful when love is star-crossed?” Sunny said. “Or as a certain Reviver-who-shall-not-be-named would say, let's break that rule.”

At the invocation of Yosaku, Teppei smiled. “Do you really love me, like for forever, Sunny?”

“Yes. Without a doubt.”

“Then I'll be your partner.”

Sunny smiled and placed a kiss on Teppei's leather glove. Teppei kneeled down too and kissed Sunny. He didn't think he'd ever had such a sweet kiss. Maybe the flowers in his new house were getting to him. 

Teppei gently pressed Sunny down onto the mossy floor. He was breathing heavily, and a brush across his pants revealed that a stunning erection was the cause. Sunny would have been all too happy to help with that, except that Teppei was already sliding his gloved hands under Sunny's waistband. 

Sunny stripped himself in a flash but left Teppei to writhe clothed on top of him while he stroked Sunny's cock. He watched Teppei's hands stutter in the ministrations as he flicked Teppei's clothed erection with his hair. 

“Don't...tease,” Teppei muttered. 

“If you say.” Sunny grasped with his hair and pulled Teppei's crotch to his face. Teppei's hands smacked against the ground for support. Sunny mouthed the stretched cloth until a wet patch began forming. Teppei was always beautiful when he was trembling like that on all fours. It made Sunny as hard as getting the blowjob himself. Well, actually, perhaps there was a way to experiment with that. 

“Tep, think you can blow me?” 

“Yes,” Teppei panted. Then gasped as Sunny hoisted him in midair and arranged the two in a 69 position, Teppei on top. 

An exploratory flick of the tongue was followed by the smooth suction of Teppei's mouth fitting over the head of his cock. Teppei was a little shorter than Sunny, but with some maneuvering, Teppei's cock was soon sliding over Sunny's tongue. 

“Mm, more Tep,” Sunny encouraged. He wanted to feel his whole shaft sheathed. “Hands.” Warm leather cupped the base of his cock. Saliva lubricated their short passage as they stroked the length that Teppei's mouth couldn't accommodate. 

But the smooth rhythm soon broke as Teppei shuddered at the sensation on his own cock. And everything else, of course–Sunny's sensors caressed his whole body. Teppei was groaning, unable to suck cock as he came close to climax. His ass shook and Sunny grabbed two handfuls of it. 

That did it. Teppei moaned and his hips bucked into Sunny's mouth as Sunny squeezed his ass tighter. The stream of come just didn't stop, and soon Sunny was forced to swallow it instead of risking the white fluid getting on the floor of his brand new house. 

God, Teppei was still coming. Had he not jerked off for the past two months? The shudders tapered off and Teppei melted into exhaustion. Sunny hoisted him off and lay next to his partner. 

He hugged Teppei, content to be beside him. No, not quite, his cock wanted attention. He hadn't jerked off himself in a good while and he was on fire with arousal. 

But before he could touch himself, Teppei hand was there, briskly stroking his stiff length. Teppei's mouth found Sunny's neck and sucked, his other hand brushing over nipples Sunny rarely remembered were sensitive. 

The tension coiled in his gut and when it finally exploded, he was too far gone to snatch the come from the air before it went flying about. His heart thundered and everything became sweet. 

As his flesh cooled, and breathing evened, he sought to snuggle deeper into the warmth that was Teppei. Teppei snuggled back, twining their legs. 

“I think I still love you,” Teppei said. 

“That's not anywhere as beautiful as what you said before,” Sunny said, too tired to truly complain. “Say it like the first time.”

“I love you,” Teppei kissed Sunny's forehead.


	22. Gourmet Epilogue

So the house, as it turned out, was a good investment. Besides cementing Teppei's relationship with Sunny, it was a fairly good source of income. 

He'd chosen the plants carefully of course, and he did know his botany. In addition to beautiful flowers, there were a number of edibles, including Lavender Lotus. Plus sunflowers and a few other things that Yosaku raved about. But the medicinal herbs and various Doctor plants were by far the bigger moneymakers. That and the Medicine Bee pen in the back.

“You've got a green thumb,” Sunny commented from his Banana Flower hammock. He had a tropical drink in one hand and looked just about as relaxed as Teppei had ever seen. 

“The master always said I was good with plants,” Teppei replied, wiping the sweat off his brow in the middle of the front yard. He was planting some Doctor Aloe sprouts. 

“Don't you have a commission coming up? Who's going to take care of the plants?”

“Maybe I should get an apprentice,” Teppei joked. “Ah, I'm kidding!” he added when Sunny went exceptionally pale. “I'm not too keen on having anyone live with us. So, anyway, I know some younger Revivers who can tend to the place while we're gone.”

“Who's getting an apprentice?” called a voice from the street. 

“Master!” Teppei cried. 

“Aren't you boys too young to be playing house?” Yosaku grinned, the puff of his three cigars creating a cloud of smog on an otherwise clear day. 

“And aren't you too old to be bothering a happy, young couple?” Sunny said.

“I see the princess is in her throne,” Yosaku said. 

“Who are you calling a princess?”

“Master...”

“Well, you can all keep your britches on. I just came for those Splint Tulips I was asking you about.”

And that day, Yosaku must really have been in a hurry, since he left shortly after getting the medicinal herbs. Often he ended up staying for dinner any time he made the trip out. But that was fine. As much as he liked Yosaku's company, or Jiro's or Toriko and Komatsu's when they stopped by, it was Sunny's company that he wanted. 

“Toriko's asking me to come train with him,” Sunny said after dinner that night. The two were on the wide leaves of the back porch, overlooking the Medicine Bee nets and the pond. The sun had gone down as they'd watched, and and now fireflies sparked in the purple light. 

“Are you going to go tomorrow?” Teppei asked. “He's always in a hurry about stuff.”

“Nah,” Sunny said with a grin. “I'll keep him waiting. He stole Matsu from me, after all.”

“Oh, the chef you wanted as your partner.”

“I just don't like things being stolen from me, that's all!” Sunny suddenly kissed Teppei. “You're my partner. Don't forget it.”

Teppei blushed.

“Yeah.”

Their hands linked, as if they'd always been joined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the end of the story. 
> 
> When I was writing this I was reading volume 17, and the "training" Sunny talks about is his training with Guemon. The meeting with Toriko that he's talking about is the Shining Gourami arc. During that same time, the end of Chowlin Temple and beginning of Four-Beasts arc was running in Shonen Jump, so Teppei had been gone from the plot for a while. It was easy to imagine him hanging out at his Life house :D
> 
> Even though this is the end of the story, I want to believe that Sunny and Teppei's romance continues on through the series!


End file.
